Lewis Crocker Heavier Than Paddy Donovan, IBF Welterweight Title Fight Set

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Mosope Ominiyi

RingMagazine.com |4 hours ago

Lewis Crocker Heavier Than Paddy Donovan, IBF Welterweight Title Fight Set

BELFAST, Northern Ireland — A few hundred fans crammed into The ICC Studio to get a glimpse before tomorrow's momentous world title fight and it was quickly clear they're favouring the underdog.

Lewis Crocker rubbed his hands together and orchestrated the vociferous cheers as both couldn't mask their excitement during final face-offs, with little over 24 hours left until they make a ring-walk neither will forget.

Paddy Donovan came in almost a pound lighter than Crocker at 145.7lbs, while the home favourite tipped the scales 0.4lbs under the 147-pound limit.

The first all-Irish world title fight, headlining a near capacity crowd at Windsor Park. Who'd have thought this was possible in the build-up to their first meeting six months ago?

Two-weight world champion Carl Frampton, who boxed in the last stadium show seven years ago, said it best: the winner will change their lives forever.

The Matchroom-promoted card will stream live on DAZN.

The lowdown

Paddy Donovan says he's been hounded persistently from all comers since tearfully departing the SSE Arena last time out.

The makings of a career-best performance banked and yet, he left with an irreversible blot on his professional record as well as an immediate need to right those wrongs.

Lewis Crocker would've felt even worse.

On the verge of a damaging stoppage defeat, having been dropped and outboxed for sustained periods over their eight completed rounds, suddenly his hand was sheepishly raised in victory.

This time, the Billy Nelson-trained contender has been more subdued and perhaps that intrigue - could he have improved that much over a short space of time - is fuelling his fire to produce a mammoth effort with most expecting a repeat display. Lucrative nights and the world championship acclaim awaits one of these two, but does Crocker have a trick up his sleeve? One more sleep to find out.

Elsewhere in the chief support, a junior middleweight matchup between unbeaten contender Caoimhin Agyarko and short-notice saviour Ishmael Davis promises to be intriguing.

Davis has grown from always agreeing to fights, even when testing himself among the elite contenders and falling short.

While not owning the unbeaten swagger Agyarko still has, the Leeds man can be encouraged by those experiences compared to a younger man yet to reach the heights many expected of him.

The fight didn't need any more selling at Thursday's press conference, but both promised it won't go the full 12-round distance.

Given their aspirations, a statement would make some serious noise in a busy 154-pound division where opportunities are never far - newly-minted WBA interim beltholder Abass Baraou exemplifies that.

Best of the rest

Speaking of heated exchanges, Tyrone McKenna-Dylan Moran certainly served one up too before their rematch. Moran's selective memory is probably serving him well, pointing to Harlem Eubank's destructive display against McKenna in March, though he was down twice en route to a second-round stoppage 10 months ago. Better hope he starts quicker this time then.

Budding cruiserweight prospect Pat Brown (3-0, 3 KOs) has his fourth fight in six months as a pro, while middleweight Aaron Bowen (6-0, 4 KOs) faces Argentina's Carlos Miguel Ronner (7-5, 2 KOs) hoping to showcase more progress in another step-up.

Ruadhan Farrell (7-1-1, 2 KOs) makes the first defence of his Irish junior featherweight title against Matthew Boreland (5-0, 1 KO) in what could be a fiery domestic duel, while there are a trio of professional debuts - including Paddy's cousin and Andy Lee-trained Jim and longtime UFC strawweight Molly McCann.

Full weights below:

Main card, live on DAZN from 2pm ET/7pm BST

Junior featherweight, 6x2-minute rounds: Molly McCann (121.3lbs) vs. Kate Rodomska (118lbs)
Cruiserweight, 8 rounds: Patrick Brown (204.8lbs) vs. Austin Nnamdi (197.6lbs)
Welterweight, 10 rounds: Tyrone McKenna (149.5lbs) vs. Dylan Moran (149.8lbs)
Junior middleweight, 12 rounds: Ishmael Davis (155.5lbs) vs. Caoimhin Agyarko (155.3lbs)
IBF world welterweight title, 12 rounds: Lewis Crocker (146.6lbs) vs. Paddy Donovan (145.7lbs)

Prelims, live on DAZN from 11.30am ET/4.30pm BST

Middleweight, 4 rounds: Jim Donovan (159.5lbs) vs. Lucas Barabasz (163lbs)
Junior middleweight, 4 rounds: Kyle Smith (157lbs) vs. Connor Meanwell (155.5lbs)
Middleweight, 8 rounds: Aaron Bowen (163.2lbs) vs. Carlos Miguel Ronner (162.2lbs)
Junior featherweight, 4 rounds: Donagh Keary (125.3lbs) vs. Caine Singh (125.3lbs)
Irish junior featherweight title, 10 rounds: Ruadhan Farrell (122lbs) vs. Matthew Boreland (121.7lbs)

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