A solid weekend of action is scheduled in British rings.
Tonight at the Indigo at the O2, the smaller venue inside the big tent at Greenwich, is the vacant British middleweight title fight between Linus Udofia (17-0, 9 KO’s) and Denzel Bentley (15-1-1, 13 KO’s).
Former champion Bentley, from Battersea south London, after impressively winning the title from Mark Heffron then lost unexpectedly in his first defence to Felix Cash last year. The undefeated Udofia has only fought at domestic level so far, but has very strong fundamentals working off a solid jab. It should be an extremely competitive fight with the odds marginally favouring the bigger punching Bentley.
Chief support will see the return of Sunderland’s Olympian Josh Kelly (10-1-1, 6 KO’s) in his first contest at junior-middleweight (11st/154lbs). He faces Albanian Xhuljo Vrenozi (18-4, 3 KO’s).
The much hyped Kelly came up short last year against world ranked David Avanesyan in a first attempt at the elite level and now begins a rebuilding job. His skills are unquestionable, and under the guidance of respected trainer Adam Booth, he will be carefully prepared for this step back into the paid ring and look to relaunch his career.
Kelly on the night should be far too good for his opponent and, provided he can put the demons to one side, should win impressively and move on.
The evening’s Wasserman Boxing promotion marks their first UK televised show in a new deal with Channel 5 and is available across the terrestrial network.
Tomorrow sees the attention shift up to north to Manchester with the next event of the popular BOXXER Series. This time it’s the turn of the cruiserweights (200lbs/14st,4lb) at the Victoria Warehouse, with eight fighters competing for the £40,000 purse in a winner-take-all elimination contest. The random draw made yesterday is:
Ellis Zorro (11-0, 6 KO’s) v Jay Farrell (9-2, 5 KO’s)
Jamie Smith (3-0, 2 KO’s) v Jack Fay (1-0-1)
Ricky Reeves (2-0, 1 KO) v Anees Taj (5-1, 4 KO’s)
Sheldon McDonald (3-0, 1 KO) v Ryan Cotterell (1-0)
Four fighters will advance to the semi-finals and then onto the final. The respective records show Zorro to be favourite, but on the night expect fireworks either way.
The event will be on Sky Sports Action from 19:00 UK time.
Enjoy your fight weekend.
The Undisputed 