Conah: I’m going to deliver a beat-down

Crocker and Walker could be the big show fight of the night

THERE are major shows and there are mega shows.

And Saturday’s scintillating, title laden Matchroom card at Resorts World falls into the latter category.

Streamed on DAZN, it drips explosive action – much of it provided by the stars of Black Country Boxing’s busy stable.

Rowley Regis’ Tyler Denny defends his European middleweight title against former British king Felix Cash.

Birmingham’s Kane Baker, one of the game’s true gladiators, bids farewell to the sport he has served so well by again facing Aqib Fiaz.

But for this writer the greatest ring tremors will be produced when big punchers Conah Walker and Lewis Crocker collide.

I like Walker. He’s old school. I like what he brings to the ring. I like the fact he is one of us, a down-to-earth Black Country lad who likes a scrap.

This is a welterweight showdown that promises raw, uncompromising action.

And Wolverhampton’s Walker – a real throwback fighter who wants to test himself against the best – is burning to bulldoze the build-up and big plans surrounding a Belfast KO artist who has won all 18 fights, 10 by stoppage. Five of those have come inside three rounds.

He’s done it before and, to a degree, there’s a sense of déjà vu about this weekend’s 10 rounder.

Last August Conah faced unbeaten knockout artist Cyrus Pattinson and was dismissed by many as a mere warm-up act for a fighter within touching distance of a lucrative title bout.

Conah, aged 29, took great umbrage at being seen as a bit part player, told everyone Pattinson wasn’t ready for him and proved it by dishing out a beating. Cyrus was simply chewed up and spat out, his corner rescuing him at the end eight painful rounds.

Walker followed that sensational win by blitzing Lloyd Germain, unbeaten in nine going into the contest, at Belfast’s Ulster Hall in January. The Welshman was dropped three times in the third.

The “Croc” will be hunted down too, Conah, who has lost only two of 16, told me. He is brim-full of confidence, yearning to again prove the critics wrong.

“I feel fantastic, ready to go,” he said. “It’s the right time for me.

“They keep underestimating me, I keep proving them wrong.”

Conah doesn’t envisage the thriller fans believe, and hope, will happen.

“People say it is going to be a war, a real tear-up,” he said. “I think it will be a one-sided beat down. I respect him as a boxer, I respect his power, I just do more things better than him. I think it will be similar to Terence Crawford and Errol Spence.”

 That meeting of undefeated world welterweight champs was dominated from start to finish by Crawford who won in nine.

“I’m better than him (Crocker),” Conah insisted. “I get better with each fight and I right my wrongs. I study the game, I always get better.”

After learning his trade on small hall shows, Conah is basking in the spotlight of big televised events and relishing every minute…the media interviews, press conferences, ring walks and, of course, the fights.

“It’s where I belong, where I come alive,” he said. “Put me on the big shows, under the lights and I rise to the occasion. It’s where I want to be, I knew I was going to be here.

“I’ve paid my dues in the away corner, now I want to fight the best. Set them up and I’ll knock them down one by one.”

Of Crocker’s chances, Conah said simply: “He’s all done.”