SHORTLY before his narrow win in Altrincham at the close of March, William Crolla chatted with Mark Baldwin to discuss what was deemed as one of the last fights of his professional apprenticeship.
It was win number seven for Will Crolla. Another supposed step-up. But it was another first-round stoppage. The Spanish import Ayoub Zakari was the latest fighter to feel the power of Crolla last month in Manchester.
“He was no mug at all,” Crolla told Boxing News over Zoom. “He’d had 90-odd amateur fights, he drew with a kid who was knocking out decent English fighters. He has five wins as a pro, and he has put quite a few over as well. But I just knew I would be too big and too strong for him. I hit him with a few shots, and I knew he didn’t like them.
“Then I just clipped him on the top of the head, and his legs went. I started off very patient because [brother/trainer] Ant [Crolla] said I wouldn’t stop someone like that. But I knew I would knock him out. I knew I’d stop him. I just fancied stopping him, I maybe didn’t think it would be that early, but I knew I would eventually stop him.”
The opening-round stoppage over Zakari was the fifth first-round stoppage in seven fights for Crolla. In seven fights as a professional, Crolla has only gained 11 rounds of experience so far. But the unbeaten super-welterweight contender isn’t unduly worried about his lack of ring time.
“I get the rounds in the gym. My engine is being built in the gym. If I can get a knockout every time I am taking it. If someone says, “Do you want to win on points, or do you want to knock him out?” I’m knocking him out. It’s not even a debate. I get the work in the gym, I don’t worry about my engine, I know I’m fit.”
After his latest win last month, his promoter Eddie Hearn referenced the switch that Crolla has. The ability to show two completely different sides of William Crolla.
“I don’t believe every fighter has got it,” Crolla says. “I don’t believe that every fighter has got that killer instinct. I believe you have to have the devilment in you to fight how I fight. When you hurt someone, you have to have that switch. When I am in there, I am waiting to explode on someone’s head. I am waiting to hurt them. I am going to try and take your head off.”
Crolla is a recent addition to the Matchroom stable, the kind of move that is important to any fighter.
“It’s the money. When you have a TV contract, you are getting better money,” Crolla says of the hook-up with Hearn and Matchroom. “You haven’t got to worry about selling tickets and paying for your opponent. It’s getting me out on a big platform. DAZN is massive. When I was a kid, it was always my dream to get signed to a big TV contract. Now I have got it it’s on to my next dream of picking up titles.
“I am knocking people out. I want people to see that. It’s a short career. I want to make as much money as I can. I don’t want to be boxing until I am 38. You can’t have too many hard fights. It takes its toll. There are a lot of old fighters that are done in. I don’t want to be like that. It’s a short career. It’s not a nice career. It’s not a good job being a boxer. But it’s what I love and it’s my ticket.”
Crolla is nearing bigger fights and tougher opponents. The power he carries will almost certainly mean that will come sooner rather than later.
“I’d fight anyone now,” Crolla told Boxing News. “I’m not ready for a British title yet, but do I beat fighters on the domestic scene, I think I do. I believe that I have got freakish power. My last opponent said to me that he’d never been hit like that, and that was just a little clip on the head. I want titles next year. This year, I’ll finish off what they call the apprenticeship. That should be done this year, I’ll fight three more times this year, possibly four.”
Crolla found boxing before he had reached double figures. But a highly promising amateur career was stalled somewhat by a series of injuries. And when he discovered alcohol, a night out was preferable to the hard graft of a boxing gym. Crolla got a job as a scaffolder, and he was lost to his sport for four years. He was probably lost to himself also.
That promising boxing career seemed as though it would be a case of what could have been. But Crolla eventually returned. It was a night in, watching his old sport and thinking that he was a better fighter than some of the fighters he was watching on his TV that prompted his comeback. Will Crolla is now seemingly intent on making up for lost time.
“I’d probably be off work today for the wrong reasons,” Crolla adds when I asked where he would be if he hadn’t returned to boxing. “I don’t feel like I work now. It’s something I love doing. I don’t get that feeling where I am watching the clock all Sunday, thinking I am at work tomorrow. I don’t get that feeling anymore.”
Crolla is the younger brother of the former world champion, Anthony Crolla. A surname that obviously gave him a seat at the table, but it’s the talent that will keep him there. The Crolla name, while having certain benefits, can equally be a poisoned chalice. There are obvious recent examples where that second name only carries you so far. But Crolla believes he is very different.
“If my surname wasn’t Crolla, there would be a lot of hype around me anyway,” Crolla says. “Some people think it’s like a gimmick, so I don’t know if it ruins it a little. But I am an unbeaten prospect who has knocked out his last six opponents, and five of those were in the first round. The name obviously helped at the start, but some are saying that because of the Crolla name, I am being gifted it.
“It can be a hindrance, and some people are putting me in that nostalgic category, but I don’t believe I deserve that. I believe I can really fight, and I will start to step out of that shadow. I have great self-belief, I think if I get it right, I can give anyone a fight. You are either born with power or you aren’t. It’s a massive game-changer. I am not saying I am going to be a world champion, but if I keep improving, I have certainly got a British or a European title in me, and then we’ll take it from there.”
