Ant Crolla, back from the brink after battling with burglars, is a hero no matter what happens against Darleys Perez  

• Ant Crolla was brutally attacked with a concrete slab when he confronted burglars at a neighbour's home last December
• The incident left Crolla with a fractured skull, concussion and a broken ankle, not to mention serious doubts over his boxing career
• After months of recovery and rehabilitation, the 28-year-old, so humble in his recollection of his heroics, is preparing for a comeback
• Crolla will take on Darleys Perez for the WBA lightweight title 

By Oliver Holt For The Mail On Sunday

Published: 16:22 EST, 11 July 2015 | Updated: 18:19 EST, 11 July 2015

Ant Crolla sits in the passenger seat and closes the door. We edge the car down his close and turn right at the T-junction. Then right again, just like the fleeing burglars did on that December evening last year. We follow the path of their flight. It’s light and calm now, not dark and frantic as it was then.

Next, Crolla gestures to turn left on to a street lined with semi-detached houses. As it curves to the right, he points to one and we stop. ‘It was there,’ he says, gazing through the car window. ‘That’s where it happened. You can still see one of the stone slabs on top of the wall.’

Crolla is a modest man. The only flash thing about him is his nickname, ‘Million Dollar’. That’s there for the rhyme, not the size of his purses. He tells his story the way most heroes do. He feels no need for embellishment or bravado. He litters everything he says about what he did with self-deprecation. He tells what happened as if it were unremarkable.

Ant Crolla talks to Sportsmail about the horrific attack he suffered at the hands of burglars last year 

Crolla gives a humble and understated account of what were really heroic actions on his part 

He says anyone would have done what he did when he got home from training that winter’s night seven months ago. Most heroes do that, too. They assume, wrongly, that others have the same instincts as them.

For many, Crolla, 28, will be a hero whether he beats Darleys Perez at the Manchester Arena next Saturday or not. The WBA lightweight world title is on the line and he has got the shot he has dreamed of for most of his life, but his courage and his generosity of spirit have already been proved beyond doubt.

That evening just before last Christmas, Crolla came back to his house in Chadderton, Oldham, and heard next door’s burglar alarm whining and protesting. He assumed there was something wrong with it. He phoned his neighbour, who was away, made a joke about going round to catch the burglars and asked him if there was anyone who could come round and shut it off.

Crolla went into his house and dumped his gym bag on the floor. The alarm was still blaring. He walked out into his back garden and climbed up on a ledge. He stood on his tiptoes and peered through the darkness over his neighbour’s fence.

At first, all he could make out was the shape of the pale rotary clothes hanger on the far side of the stone-paved yard. Crolla stared some more. He thought he saw a shadow playing on the window-pane of one of the patio doors.

The 28-year-old confronted burglars at a neighbour's home and pursued them down the street 

Then he realised that the shadow was actually a jagged hole where the glass had been smashed. He reached for his mobile phone so he could turn the torch on. Then a head popped out of the hole and a pair of eyes stared right at him.

Crolla was deep in preparation for a world title fight, a dream he once thought might pass him by. He was scheduled to challenge Richar Abril for the WBA lightweight world title. It was to be the pinnacle of his career. The bout was only five weeks away. Win it and he could command a big purse for his next fight.

Crolla dreamed of buying a new house for his parents. His dad, a descendant of Italian immigrants who arrived in this country in their ice-cream van and made their rounds in nearby Ancoats, is a postman. His mum works at Tesco. Crolla wanted to repay them for everything they had done for him and his two brothers. And he wanted to make them proud.

Crolla had been preparing for a WBA lightweight title fight against Richar Abril and risked everything 

There was an awful lot for him to lose the night the burglars came. But instinct took over and he put everything at risk. He dashed back through his house and out on to his drive just in time to see two shapes sprinting away to his right. He chased after them.

He went right, right, left, gaining on the burglars all the time. The two lads panicked and turned into a driveway. They headed for the back garden but found their path blocked by a high stone wall, inset with a wrought iron gate and topped by a couple of loose, flat concrete slabs. They were cornered.

‘I thought it would be hard to grab both of them and walk them back,’ says Crolla, as he stares out at the spot where he nearly lost a lot more than a title shot. ‘So I decided I’d just walk back with one of them and he’s going to have to tell on his mate. I fixed on one of them. I hadn’t gripped him or anything by then and I was aware that the other one had started climbing the wall.

‘The one that was cornered looked scared. I suppose he knew the game was up. I was about to grab him but then, from my blind side, the other guy chucked the concrete slab on my head. I went down on one knee. I knew straight away I’d been hit with a brick or something. I’ve been hit hard before but not that hard.’ The men fled. Crolla tried to chase them but his ankle had been shattered by the slab, too. He did not know it yet but his skull had also been fractured. Somehow, he staggered home. His girlfriend, Fran, was waiting for him anxiously with their baby son, Jesse.

Drenched in blood, Crolla sat down at the kitchen table because he thought it might add a veneer of normality to the situation and alarm Jesse a little less. He tried to crack a couple of jokes. When the ambulance failed to arrive, Crolla’s uncle drove him to Royal Oldham Hospital where he stayed for three days.

Crolla was hospitalised after the attack and comforting him by his bedside was devoted girlfriend Fran 

In addition to a fractured skull, Crolla had his ankle shattered by the force of the concrete slab

Crolla skips during a public workout session ahead of his comeback fight against Darleys Perez  

Seven months on, the men who attacked Crolla are still at large. The police, says Crolla, have not even ‘heard a whisper’ about who the perpetrators might be. He is not bitter about it, though. Crolla has an even temper and a forgiving nature. He has moved on.

He dreaded being told his boxing life was over. There were fears that his skull fracture might stop him fighting again but after passing a battery of tests in the spring, the British Boxing Board of Control cleared him to resume his career.

Crolla worried he might not get another shot at the title. He has not had a smooth career path. He has lost four times in his 35 fights. He is a fine boxer but there are others who might argue they have a better claim to being a contender for a prized world title chance. Abril was stripped of the crown earlier this year after twice pulling out of scheduled fights against Liverpool’s Derry Mathews. He was succeeded as champion by Perez and Crolla’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, secured his man a shot at the Colombian in Manchester on Saturday.

Crolla lands a punch on Derry Matthews during their Lightweight title bout at the Echo Arena back in 2013 

Crolla says that he does not dwell on what happened to him and is simply grateful to have a second chance 

It feels like karma. It feels as if Crolla deserves this chance as a reward for what he did. He says that he carries no demons with him about the attack and that he feels its repercussions have made him even better equipped to reach his goal. He is even more determined than he was before. He knows what he could have lost.

‘I was worried that I might feel tenderness or dizziness the first time I took a head shot again,’ says Crolla. ‘I was wondering whether what had happened might affect my punch resistance and being hit again was the final hurdle for me to get over. 

‘It sounds stupid but in a way I was excited about getting punched in the head again in sparring. The first time I was punched after the slab went over my head and there were no ill-effects, that felt like the last box to be ticked. All the demons had gone.

‘Not everyone is lucky enough to even get a first chance at a world title shot so I know how lucky I am to get a second chance. I have tried to make every session count. I am under no illusions that I will need a career-best performance to win on Saturday and bring the world title home but I have been the underdog before in big fights — not as big as this — and it’s something I like.’

Crolla has flourished under the guidance of renowned boxing trainer Joe Gallagher (left) 

Crolla, who is under the tutelage of respected Manchester trainer Joe Gallagher, does not thirst for vengeance against the men who could have cost him his life as well as his livelihood. ‘Honestly, he is the nicest lad in this mad game,’ says fellow fighter Paul Smith. Crolla knows that they are still out there but it is his hope that the publicity the attack received and the anger that was voiced towards those who committed the crime has scared the robbers into early retirement.

Nor is Crolla cowed by what happened. ‘The anger towards those two lads has gone,’ says Crolla. ‘It sounds soft but I would drive myself mad thinking about who had done it. I’m better now. I’ve recovered. I just hope that they have stopped robbing houses. I am pretty sure they’re not doing it any more, locally at least. I have got no hard feelings. I would happily sit down with them and talk to them. I don’t hold any grudge. The lad who put a concrete slab over my head, you sometimes think “How could you do that?” But I have moved on from it. I am in a much better place. I think I have come back stronger than ever.

Crolla insists that he is not driven by any lust for vengeance on the men who attacked him 

Crolla hopes that the burglars who attacked him have reflected on their actions and since changed their ways

‘What satisfaction would it give me if they caught them? What good would it do me? The police have never heard a whisper on the streets of who it could have been and, in a way, that gives me a bit of satisfaction. They’re living with what they did. That gives them something where they think “I can’t do that again”. What satisfaction am I going to get from beating up some robbers? Will it boost my ego? It won’t. I forgive them and I hope they have stopped it.

‘Would I do the same again? Without a doubt. It’s a natural reaction. I would probably do it without knowing and it’s just a normal thing to do, isn’t it? It’s an instinct. I hope it doesn’t happen again but it’s something you wouldn’t think twice about.

‘I’m pleased I did something. I have no regrets. There were loads of people who were saying what a brilliant thing it was I did but it was just a normal thing.

‘The guy next door is a mate as well as a neighbour but I could have been walking down a street I didn’t know, any street, and if someone’s breaking into somebody’s property, it’s not right and you do the right thing to stop them. I think I try to do the right thing. You get raised to know right from wrong.’

Crolla admits that he will not encourage his young son Jesse to follow his choice of career path 

Crolla thinks about Jesse. He says it is his worst nightmare that the kid should grow up to become a boxer. ‘I pray to God he never wants to,’ he says. ‘I won’t stop him but I won’t encourage it. It’s a tough business. It’s a tough old job. The highs can be high but the lows are low.’

He says he would like to make Jesse proud on Saturday. ‘My little boy will start school in a few years’ time,’ says Crolla. ‘He’d be able to say “My daddy was a world champion”. That’s massive motivation for me.’

It may be that Crolla is destined to become one of those sportsmen more famous for what he did outside the arena than inside it. Whatever happens against Perez, maybe it is enough that his son will always know that in an age when most people choose to look the other way, when his dad’s choice came, Million Dollar Crolla did the right thing.

Crolla takes on Darleys Perez for the WBA lightweight title at the Manchester Arena next Saturday 

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