Liam Paro is relishing the prospect of having home advantage when he fights Liam Crocker partly because of the “pretty dodgy” judging he has witnessed in the UK.
The Australian will learn in the coming days exactly where and when he will challenge the IBF welterweight champion but he already knows it is likely to be in April in his hometown of Brisbane, because it was his promoters No Limit who outbid Matchroom – the promoters of Crocker – to secure the rights to his latest fight.
Paro, who had been set to fight Ireland’s Paddy Donovan in a final eliminator for the same title in January until illness ruled Donovan out, previously travelled to Puerto Rico to dethrone Subriel Matias as the IBF junior-welterweight champion, but is wary of the reputation of British judges as a consequence of, among others, fights like that for the undisputed 140lbs title between Josh Taylor and Jack Catterall in 2022.
That Taylor’s then-promoter Bob Arum was so critical of the judging at the conclusion of their rematch two years later and that Bakhram Murtazaliev’s team has reportedly asked the IBF to order a rematch with Josh Kelly after objecting to the scoring of their 154lbs title fight on Saturday in Newcastle, England – so near to Kelly’s hometown – ultimately hasn’t helped.
The 29-year-old Crocker is a popular figure in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where he lives and remains, and to the extent that that is where Matchroom had planned to stage his latest title defence, but Paro told BoxingScene: “I was confident I could win – I’ve travelled before and done it. But to have it on Australian ground is way better – I want to be a household name here – and touching on the judging over in the UK, it’s pretty dodgy. We’ve seen shows recently where even the commentary doesn’t even know – if even the commentary’s not on the same page, that’s not good.
“But with the IBF I was confident all I needed was a fair shake and I’m confident I can get it done, but of course I’m a lot happier. I’m a lot more excited and a lot more motivated to have it here.
“It’s international judges – we don’t have Aussie judges here [so Crocker needn’t be concerned]. They’re picked from all around the world, so the IBF are good at picking judges. We’ve both got a fair shake – the best man’s gonna win on the night. Whoever comes up and shows up and executes their game plan to the best is gonna win.
“Words can’t describe how excited I am. I’ve been saying since before I was with No Limit how much I want to bring big titles to Australia; how much I want to win titles in front of the Aussie people. We’re diehard fight fans and diehard sports fans. We always have to travel to take those big opportunities but now it’s here. It’s right in front of me. There’s only one job left and that’s for me to perform on fight night and win that strap and join the likes of Jeff Fenech in being the only Aussie-born multi-division world champion. To sit at the same table as him, I’m gonna make it a reality. I’m very confident I can do so. I’ve got a hard task ahead of me – a credible opponent in Lewis Crocker – but I’m ready to go down in Australian sport as one of the greats.”
It was with a bid of $1,152,000 that No Limit beat Matchroom, who were willing to commit $1,125,000, to the rights to Crocker-Paro.
Under Matchroom’s guidance in Puerto Rico Paro won against Matias and then lost to Richardson Hitchins the IBF 140lbs title. His former promoter struggled to deliver to him the world-title defence they had sought for him in his home country – their attempts to secure government funding came to little – and Paro, 29, revealed that the ambition No Limit demonstrated means that he felt vindicated for having faith in his new promoter.
No Limit’s George Rose said on Thursday that it represented “the biggest purse-bid win by an Aussie boxing promoter in boxing history”, and Paro said: “I’m so glad I made the decision to come back. In the same way, it was a no-brainer – the opportunity to do so in Australia was always my dream. I’m a proud Aussie man, so to be able to do it here means the most to me and No Limit has that opportunity; the revenue; the doorways; the pulling power to bring big shows to Australia, and they just proved that again. They knew the division. We’re all on the same page and did it all a lot quicker than we anticipated. It’s the best decision I’ve ever made – I’m so stoked to be under the No Limit banner.
“It felt like a bit of a letdown [to return to Puerto Rico to fight Hitchins], because the whole ‘If you beat Matias’; ‘If; if; if’. I felt like I was never meant to win that fight, you know what I mean? We went over there; we did the job; we got it done, and that’s just the way it is. Unfortunately they couldn’t come to a deal or couldn’t find the funding or whatever was the reason to have it here in Australia, so I went back to Puerto Rico. I just wanted to fight and that’s the way it was.
“We signed with No Limit. They knew my intentions; they knew my dreams. They’ve made it happen. It shows the belief they have in me to get it across the line – outbidding my previous promoter to hold the champion and have it in Australia, it just shows what I mean to them and that gives me that extra motivation to want to perform even better to win this title. I’m taking this opportunity with both hands.
“They had the opportunity to match what No Limit were offering to give us. We went with the one that would move me forward in the future; progress my life; put food on the table for my family. No Limit not only do that, they had the same vision as us.”
Paro is also optimistic because of No Limit’s plans to stage the fight as early as possible.
“We heard that [Crocker] wanted to fight in late April, and we know that he’s just changed trainers [from Billy Nelson to Huzaifah Iqbal,” he said. “The longer a fighter has to mesh more with his coach… We were ready to fight in January so we haven’t taken our foot off the gas. The earlier, the better for us. We’re peaking and ready to go. I’m with a promoter that believes in me the most; has put up the most money, so now the ball’s in their court for when they want to host it. That’s why they tell you to stay ready.”
