Anthony Crolla is not a man to break his word, so when he says he will retire after tonight's fight with Frank Urquiaga, you can be certain he means it. Boxing isn't generally a sport packed with sentimentality and boxers are often the last to know when it is time to leave, but that Crolla gets to walk away on his own terms is something to be celebrated.

Boxing is full of nice guys, but anyone who has anything bad to say about Crolla has probably never met him. Generous, honest and engaging, when he defied the odds to win a world title in 2015, plenty of tears were shed.

Once his career seemed destined to be going nowhere, but through hard work and determination, he made it and will have one last appearance at Manchester Arena, where he made his professional debut as a teenager in 2006 on the undercard of Joe Calzaghe's win over Sakio Bika, and where he won and lost his world title.

"It's hard to let it go, but I don’t want boxing to take more from me than I’ve taken from boxing," Crolla said.

That the 32-year-old can walk anywhere remains a blessing. Just before Christmas 2014, a burglar smashed him over the head with a concrete slab, leaving him with a fractured skull and a shattered ankle. He has not been able to run properly since.

He had been in training then for what seemed an unlikely world-title shot against Richar Abril. Against the odds, he returned to the ring six months later, challenging Darleys Perez for the WBA lightweight title, looking unlucky to draw the first time and then knocking the Colombian out with a body shot in the rematch.

One successful defence followed, against Ismael Barroso, before Jorge Linares took his world title. Three wins followed before he boxed Vasiliy Lomachenko in Los Angeles. The brutal four-round knockout administered by the Ukrainian put an end to any ambitions of reaching the top again.  But he didn't want to finish like that, flat out on the canvas in Los Angeles, so he asked Eddie Hearn, his promoter, for one more fight. Hearn obliged with a fight he should win.

"It could easily get emotional, but I can't allow that to happen. I have to be strong and focused like for any other fight," he said.

But saying farewell will not be easy. A self-confessed gym rat, not training has proved difficult for him in the past, while he always volunteered to be the bucketman in the corner when one of his gym-mates boxed. He will not be lost to the sport, though. He has been a regular pundit on Sky Sports and trains youngsters at his old amateur club.

"I won’t get up too early as I’m sure there’ll be a party after the fight,” Crolla said. “I’ll have a sleep in but then I will go to a coffee shop and have a coffee and a cake then take my little boy (Jesse) to football practice.

“It will feel different for a while, it will be tough. The hunger will never leave me but I will have to get other joys out of boxing.”

Jesse will be ringside tonight to watch his dad, but Crolla hopes he is not inspired to follow his career choice.

“I hope he sticks to the football,” Crolla said. “I don’t want to be back here in 15 years doing his corner at Manchester Arena.”