Belfast’s Lewis Crocker burst into the role as the city’s most exciting fighter with his fine performance against local rival Tyronne McKenna in December.
Crocker (18-0, 10 KOs) turns around quickly into his next fight with Jose Felix tomorrow night, less than two months on from his crowning moment against McKenna. Crocker was the shining light for Belfast boxing during a difficult night for the city with Michael Conlan being stopped by Jordan Gill.
“I know mate, it was quick, I feel like I was here yesterday,” Crocker said in an exclusive interview for ProBox TV. “A quick turn around, but I am glad the opportunity came thanks to Conlan and Matchroom Boxing. I had a good Christmas and everything that came with it, I was thinking maybe I will fight in March time. It was a bit of a shock to get the call, I had to get working again. Hopefully I get a good win here on Saturday. I think this was their [Matchroom] test, put it on me and get in there with a dangerous fighter. Matcroom will probably have big plans for me this year.
“I was the less popular fighter coming into the McKenna fight, he was the bigger name. Obviously Conlan was the main event, a lot of Conlan’s fans would have been Tyrone’s fans more so than mine. But the people who were booing were cheering for me at the end. Plenty are coming here on Saturday to support me so it is good to see.”
Crocker dominated last time out, two judges scoring a perfect 100-90 in a fight that saw his opponent take a battering.
“I was just feeling it,” Crocker explained. “I always say, the better the fight, the better I will perform. When I’m feeling it, I’m on my A-game. I expect to show the same on Saturday. Jose will come to fight, I’ll have a game plan for everything anyway, so we will see what happens.
“Since the last fight, I’ve definitely gotten more popular. But saying that, I’ve only spent two weeks in Belfast since the fight, you know what I mean, because it was to Scotland for training in mid-December. But every time I come over here, everywhere I go, I’m getting stopped and people are wishing me well. So it is great, I love the people of Belfast and I’m proud to be from Belfast, so to represent the flag is great.”
Limerick’s breakthrough welterweight talent Paddy Donovan joins Crocker’s undercard tomorrow night, while their promoters and their nation’s all dream of putting the pair together for a big Irish burnburner in 2024.
“Yeah mate, I’ve been getting asked all week about that,” Crocker added. “And I keep telling people that, yeah we will fight each other but it needs to make sense. Do you know what I mean? Like, pay us both! Give us a stadium fight or something, because we are not stupid. He can represent the thing down south and take off, and I can keep doing my thing here up north, then that can be a fight for the future. Like I said, and like Paddy says, It does need to make sense, we are not stupid.
“There are probably bigger stadiums down south, but yeah, a Katie Taylor undercard or something …I don’t know though, I don’t even know if Katie Taylor will be about then. Although they were talking about maybe summer time for Katie, but I don’t know. It is hard to say because it is really irrelevant at this stage. I think people have just got the buzz as if there are talks that the fight is going to happen next, but I don’t think it will happen next. I think it is a thing for the future. We will see what happens.”
