Garan and Ioan Croft: Twin aims of Welsh boxers

“We’ve always wanted to do better than each other,” says Welsh boxer Garan Croft as he turns to his training partner.

Garan is older than his training partner – one minute older in fact.

For his training partner is identical twin brother Ioan and the 24-year-olds are pushing each other to achieve success.

“Whether we’re running, on one of the assault bikes or the vertical climb – we want to beat each other,” Garan adds.

“We’ve got to be separated in sparring sometimes.

“We’re twins, we’ve always been competitive, ask our parents.”

“But that’s a great asset to have in a training partner.”

The two will never fight each other – Ioan is a middleweight and Garan a super-welterweight.

They were described as “two very talented young fighters” by Matchroom Sport chairman Eddie Hearn upon signing with the promoters in February this year.

They both won on their Matchroom debuts in April – Ioan defeated Serbia’s Novak Radulovic before Garan saw off Marco Simmonds of England.

“It’s great to have that backing from Matchroom,” said Ioan.

“It’s everything that we’ve ever worked towards really. It gives us that platform to show how good we are.

“Our debuts with Matchroom were brilliant here in Manchester and looking forward to our next one now.

“Before, when we didn’t have the backing of Matchroom, we would get out of the ring and didn’t know what was next.

“Now it’s nice to have this path in front of us over the next few years and gives us that real incentive to work a little bit harder.”

For Garan, too, signing up with Matchroom has given him and Ioan the prospect of fighting for titles in the near future.

“It’s where any young boxer wants to be at the minute,” Garan said of the long-term deal with Matchroom.

“The opportunities are massive – it’s what people know and it’s what people are watching these days.

“I believe with their backing we can bring big nights of boxing back to Wales.

“That would be amazing and a dream come true. That’s the aim.”