Crocker’s hand injury ‘nothing too serious’

Lewis Crocker’s manager Jamie Conlan says the IBF welterweight champion’s hand injury is “nothing too serious” and expects the Belfast fighter’s first title defence against Liam Paro to take place in May.

While no date or venue had been officially confirmed by Paro’s promoter No Limit, early April was rumoured to be their preferred time for the bout to take place on Australian soil.

However, Conlan’s team provided a medical notice to Paro’s team and the IBF requesting extra time for the champion to recover from the injury, with May in the Queensland city of Townsville now looking likely.

“[Crocker] has a small niggle on his metacarpal, nothing too serious but it’s strained and that put him back about four weeks,” Conlan confirmed to BBC Sport NI.

“We just made sure we gave [medical notice to the IBF] in enough time and to give No Limit enough time to get a date that suits everybody.

“We have a tentative date we are working towards but until it’s official, we won’t really know.”

Crocker won the title with a split decision verdict over Paddy Donovan at Belfast’s Windsor Park in September and his team had hoped to stage the defence against mandatory challenger Paro back in his home city.

However, with no agreement reached between both parties, the matter was resolved by a purse bid with No Limit outbidding Crocker’s promoter Matchroom by $27,000 (£20,000).

The 25,500-capacity Queensland Country Bank Stadium is understood to be a leading contender to host the fight and, despite travelling to opposition territory, Conlan says it is “a really exciting time” for his fighter.

“It will be back-to-back headliners outdoors. He won [the title] at Windsor Park and now to do it in Australia, in his opponent’s back yard against the hardest fighter you’ll be in the ring with creates a great legacy and that’s what Lewis Crocker is out to do.