Lewis Crocker can look forward to an exciting and lucrative future after winning the vacant IBF welterweight title.

On Saturday night, Crocker (22-0, 11 KOs) boxed his way to a split decision over Paddy Donovan in a tense rematch.

After being written off by all and sundry before the fight, the Belfast man woke up Sunday morning as a world champion and a major player in the welterweight division.

“It's been brilliant. It really is cloud nine. Unreal,” Crocker’s manager, Jamie Conlan, told The Ring once the celebrations had died down.

“What an occasion, what a night. He just changed everything and put in performance that he really needed to do.”

Although Crocker officially won the controversial first meeting between the two, the 28-year-old never got any kind of foothold in the fight.

He trailed on the scorecards and was hurt and under heavy fire when Donovan was disqualified after landing a heavy shot after the bell sounded to end Round 8.

Given little chance of turning things around in the return, Crocker and his trainer, Billy Nelson, took no notice of outside opinions and quietly put together an outstanding game plan that highlighted his own strengths whilst also capitalising on Donovan’s traits and habits.

It was a stunning turnaround.

“A million percent. It wasn’t even just the fight, it was the build-up,” Conlan said.

“He didn't get involved. The first one, obviously, there was a bit of selling the fight and it was probably his first fight where he'd been drawn into a bit of back and forth and got sucked up into the home crowd, pushing things. So I think he did get caught up a wee bit last time.

“This time, he didn't do interviews. He was really quiet, really calm and just kept his head down, to a point where it looked like this guy doesn't want this. People were sending me messages saying, 'Is he all right? Is he going to turn up?'

“But that's the way he was. He was just quietly confident and we were all quietly confident internally. Everyone was happy and everyone was feeling that, 'OK, we can win this.'”

Crocker carried that same composure into the fight.

Rather than desperately trying to land a heavy shot as quickly as possible or trudging after Donovan with his hands up, Crocker laid back and baited the Limerick man to lead. He would then throw hard and with conviction. He dropped Donovan twice with chopping left hooks, and the consequences of getting hit made him wary of overcommitting.

Although the fifth-round knockdown was far heavier, the brief look of confusion that flashed across Donovan’s face after he picked himself up off the canvas in the third round was telling.

This was a totally different fight, fighter and scenario than the one he expected.

“That was one thing we kept saying, 'You know now what Paddy Donovan has but he doesn't know what you have because that wasn't a true representation of yourself,'” Conlan said.

“We were always very confident in that.

“They didn't really understand what Lewis had, but Lewis had had the chance and opportunity to feel the power, feel the pace, feel the positioning, feel the distance. Where he's strong, where he's not strong.”

After spending the best part of 2025 embroiled with Donovan, Crocker can look to the future.

He is at his best when he is active, busy and can roll from fight camp to fight camp. Rather than disappearing off on an extended victory tour, it seems like he has realised the scale of the opportunity he has earned himself.

“To his credit, he rung me first thing this morning,” Conlan said. “Before he said a word, he just was laughing. He's not stopped laughing. He just keeps laughing and giggling.

“He just said, 'I need to get back to the gym. I just need to keep in the gym.'”

“He says, 'I've got one chance at this and I just need to make the most of it' so we have some media obligations over the next seven to 10 days and then he's saying he’s not going holiday, he just wants to get back.”

Brief discussions have already been held about what that Crocker’s next step will be.

Immediately after the fight, Conor Benn — almost inevitably — was thrown into the mix as a potential future opponent. A fight between the two would be an exciting, explosive affair but Benn has pressing business of his own to attend to. On November 15, he will face Chris Eubank in a middleweight rematch.

Conlan has a little time to plot Crocker’s next move. A fight with Benn would be a massive, lucrative option but Jaron Ennis’ decision to leave the welterweight division behind and chase further glory at 154 pounds has opened up the division.

Crocker can sit back and watch Benn and Eubank settle their differences and then see how WBO champion, Brian Norman fares against Devin Haney when they meet on the Ring IV card in Saudi Arabia a week later, safe in the knowledge that he has a significant say in what happens at 147 pounds.

Whilst there are lots of tempting, exciting options, Conlan’s immediate is to secure Crocker a voluntary defence and keep the ball rolling before targeting a major name next spring or summer.

“[Next] I think a voluntary in the SSE Arena again. Keep the momentum running high,” he said.

“Build the profile, build the opportunity and grow as a fighter because when you see fighters become world champions, you rarely see them get worse. They just get better. The confidence grows and they believe in themselves.

“If he has an opportunity to get a voluntary in that would be ideal and then look at a big clash with Benn, or a big recognisable name or a unification with one of the other guys.

"I would love [WBC champion] Mario Barrios fight as unification. It would be explosive and would be right in his wheelhouse. It’d make him a real household name because that would make a fan-friendly, fun fight and a fight that he would really capitalise on and look a million dollars in.”