Australian to get second world title opportunity.
No Limit Boxing have successfully outbid Matchroom Boxing for the IBF welterweight title fight between Lewis Crocker and Liam Paro.
The winning bid was $1,152,000, just $27,000 more than Matchroom’s bid of $1,125,000.
Matchroom are rather notorious for losing purse bids. Recently, they were outbid by Fresh Productions Boxing for the WBC super-lightweight title fight between Dalton Smith and Subriel Matías.
On that occasion, however, their fighter (Smith) ended up upsetting the odds and winning on away soil to come away as champion. Matchroom will be hoping the same happens in this fight.
Lewis Crocker (22-0, 11 KOs) is the IBF welterweight champion, and he won his title in a split decision over two-fight Irish rival Paddy Donovan. Their first fight saw Crocker win a disqualification on a punch after the bell after Donovan had been winning convincingly.
Donovan was set to fight Liam Paro in a final eliminator for a shot at Crocker’s title, but when Donovan pulled out, it was decided to push Paro straight into the title shot.
Paro (27-1, 16 KOs) previously won an IBF title of his own at super-lightweight by defeating the feared puncher Subriel Matías in his back garden of Puerto Rico. Paro would then lose the title in his very first defence against unbeaten American technician Richardson Hitchins.
Following this loss, Paro moved up to welterweight and halted 18-1 American Jonathan Navarro before getting a decision over the 30-0-1 Frenchman David Papot. It was in this latter fight that Paro suffered a severely swollen right eye, which many thought would keep him out of action for a while.
But now Paro is getting the opportunity to become a two-weight world champion against Belfast’s Crocker, and it’s thought their clash may end up on the undercard of the rescheduled WBC super-welterweight title fight between Sebastian Fundora and Keith Thurman in Las Vegas on the 28th of March.
🚨 NO LIMIT WINS CROCKER-PARO BIDS
✅ No Limit has won the purse bids for the Lewis Crocker-Liam Paro IBF welterweight title fight by $27k. No Limit bid $1.152m, while Matchroom bid $1.125m. Fight could land on March 28 Sebastian Fundora-Keith Thurman undercard. (@DanRafael1) pic.twitter.com/ZeU1onRF7M
— EverythingBoxing | Darshan Desai (@EverythingBoxi2) February 3, 2026
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