By Kevin Brown: Eddie Hearn is back with his B squad for this weeks fight night. As usual, this card features a blend of experience and prospects in what should be a watchable, but not surprising night.
Most of the matches on offer tomorrow will feature the ‘light-hitters’ of the Matchroom stable where knockouts are hard to come by with the exception of the hugely talented Callum Smith.
In action there will be:
Ricky Burns
Former two-weight world champion Ricky Burns (36(11)-4) will be looking to make his step up to light-welterweight and find his first win in four. He takes on Alexandre Lepelley (17′(3)-1) in a fight scheduled for ten rounds. Lepelley has never been stopped. However, he has never had a fight go past the eighth round. Most of his fights seem to have been held round the back of the local Gym so i expect that Burns will be looking to showcase his technical skills in the first six rounds before looking to land a stoppage in or around the eighth round. More than anything Burns needs to pull out and perfect performance. More for his own benefit than anything else. Ever since his controversial draw with Raymundo Beltran, Burns has had a reluctance to let go of his punches and it has ended up costing him dear and that was clear for all to see in his last fight.
Callum Smith
Super-Middleweight hot prospect Callum Smith (13(10)-0) returns to the ring against Rafael Sosa (48(19)-10) in an an eight round contest. With seven first round KO’s to his name already, Smith could be in for another short night in what is deemed as simply a warm up fight before he takes on Nikola Sjekloca next month. That fight will mark a considerable step up in class as Sjekloca’s only two defeats have came against Arthur Abraham and Sakio Bika. Winning that fight will probably see him bypass the British title altogether unless his brother Paul Smith gets his rematch with Abraham and chooses to vacate, leaving it open for Callum to take on Rocky Fielding or Frank Buglioni.
Brian Rose
World title challenger Brian Rose (25(7)-2) makes a ‘softly-softly’ return to the ring in an 8-round contest against Ignacio Fraga (11(5)-7). After the beating Rose took at the hands of Andrade in his last fight, this is exactly what he needs as he starts his comeback. Fraga is a fighter no one will have heard off before so i dont think this will be anything other than a confidence builder for Rose. Whether or not Rose can ever get back to world level remains to be seen, but regardless of that, the European title is well within reach.
Josh Warrington
Heading the bill this Saturday is Yorkshire boy Josh Warrington (18(2)-0) as he bids to win the vacant EBU featherweight title against Davide Dieli (15(5)-3. The most interesting fact about this fight is that Warrington only has 2 KO’s to his name. This must be a slight concern that he seems to lack knockout power in the Featherweight division. Hopefully this is something he can improve over time. Luckily for him, what he lacks in power, he makes up for in Stamina and technique having only lost a handful of his rounds in his young career. I can quite easily see this fight going the full twelve rounds with Warrington winning every round. Dieli is 34 now and has fought less times than Warrington so its hard to give any claim to his chances in what i expect to be a complete shut out.
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