Friday: Lewis Crocker-Deniz Ilbay Welterweight Showdown to Stream Live and Exclusively on ESPN+
One of Europe’s top welterweights returns this
Friday, March 12, as #MTKFightNight is back with Lewis “The Croc” Crocker
making the first defense of his WBO European belt in a 10-rounder against
German contender Deniz Ilbay at University of Bolton Stadium in Bolton,
England.
In the co-feature, Irish fan-favorite Gary Cully will battle Kazakhstan’s
Viktor Kotochigov in a 10-rounder for the vacant WBO European lightweight
title.
Crocker-Ilbay, Cully-Kotochigov and undercard bouts will stream live and
exclusively in the United States on ESPN+ starting at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT.
Crocker (12-0, 7 KOs) captured the WBO European belt last August with a
dominating seventh-round stoppage over Louis Greene, a former British
Southern Area champion. The Belfast native takes another step up against
Ilbay (22-2, 10 KOs), who is 7-1 in his last eight bouts. He last fought in
December 2019 and notched a first-round stoppage over Milos Janjanin.
Cully (11-0, 5 KOs), from Naas, Ireland, went 2-0 in 2020, including a
first-round stoppage over Joe Fitzpatrick to capture the Irish lightweight
title. He returned last August and survived a fifth-round knockdown to edge
Craig Woodruff via decision. Kotochigov (12-1, 5 KOs), a former WBC
International lightweight champion, seeks to rebound from last October’s
upset loss to Maxi Hughes.
*In other streaming action:*
– Former Commonwealth featherweight champion Isaac Lowe (20-0-3, 6 KOs)
makes his first ring appearance since the Deontay Wilder-Tyson Fury II
undercard and will face Ed Harrison (2-5) in a six-round junior lightweight
bout. Lowe is ranked as a top-10 featherweight by two of the major
sanctioning organizations.
– Former British amateur star Jordan Reynolds will make his highly
anticipated professional debut in a six-round middleweight bout versus the
durable Robbie Chapman (6-6).
– In an eight-round welterweight tilt, Bolton native Sahir Iqbal (8-0, 1
KO) will fight an opponent to be named.
– The ESPN+ stream is scheduled to begin with the pro debut of Carl
Fail, who will clash with the unbeaten Jordan Dujon (4-0) in a six-rounder
at junior middleweight.
*About ESPN+*
ESPN+ is the industry-leading sports streaming service that offers fans in
the U.S. thousands of live sports events, original programming not
available on ESPN’s linear TV or digital networks and exclusive editorial
content from dozens of ESPN writers and reporters. Launched in April 2018,
ESPN+ has grown to more than 12.1 million subscribers.
Fans sign up to ESPN+ for just $5.99 a month (or $59.99 per year) at
ESPN.com, ESPNplus.com or on the ESPN App (mobile and connected devices).
It is also available as part of The Disney Bundle that gives subscribers
access to Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu for $12.99/month (Hulu w/ads) or
$18.99/month (Hulu w/o ads).
