The young stars of MTK Global Amateurs and Kirkby ABC fought out some impressive bouts at Liverpool’s Cunard Building on Saturday night at a fundraiser for the MTK Foundation and Blossom Hill.
Plenty of future contenders showcased their potential in front of a packed house which included experts such as MTK Liverpool head Derry Mathews, MTK Manchester head Johnney Roye and MTK Global Scout Tom Stalker.
Mathews, whose son Derry Jr boxed on the night, said: “I was pleased with his performance. He did what we’ve been working on in the gym. It’s down to him how far he can go.
“All the boxers – from Kirkby ABC and from our club – performed brilliantly and it was a great night that’s hopefully raised a lot of money for good causes.
“My aim is to build the future, get them to a certain age and a certain level and then put them into MTK Global’s hands.”
Stalker said: “It was a brilliant night. Amateur boxing has always been my love so there’s nothing better for me than to be supporting our next generation so they can perform at their highest levels.
“I’d like to say a big personal thank you to Peter from Kirkby ABC, without whom the show couldn’t have run anything like as well as it did, so well done to him. Hopefully, the whole event raised some good money for the two charities.”
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Bristol’ Lee Haskins has landed a great opportunity to get back into the world title mix when he faces Kenny Demecillo in a final eliminator for the IBF World Title on 21st October. The fight will be promoted by boxing royalty Manny Pacquiao and will take place in Manilla, Philippines. The winner will be the mandatory challenger for IBF champion Emmanuel Rodriguez who is currently set to box in the quarter finals of the World Boxing Super Series.
Demecillo from Cebu, Philippines has a record of 14 wins (8 KO’s) 4 losses and 2 draws and will have youth on his side at 26 years of age against the veteran Haskins who has competed at a much higher level during his illustrious career.
Former IBF World Champion Haskins had this to say about his upcoming fight: “This is the kind of fight I’ve been waiting for, a chance to get back into contention for the IBF World Title. The thought of travelling to Phillipines does not faze me, throughout my career I’ve had to box on the road in places like Morocco, Belgium, France ans Spain. I can’t wait to get the job done and put myself back in pole position for a crack at the World Title”
Manager Chris Sanigar added “We’ve been patient waiting for the right opportunity for Lee and we believe this is a very winnable fight with a massive chance to get another world title shot. Its an exciting challenge for the team.”
On the same card in Manila, Randy Petalcorin (29-2-1, 22 KO’s) of General Santos City in the Philippines will take on Felix Alvarado (33-2, 29 KO’s) of Managua, Nicaragua for the vacant IBF 108-pound world championship.
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Tewkesbury’s own Adam Harper travels to Essex this evening to take on Billy Bird for the vacant BBBofC English Super Welterweight Title writes Ben Gibson.
The former Midlands Area Champion will be looking to bounce back from the defeat he suffered six months ago as he challenged Michael Zerafa in Australia for the Commonwealth Title.
Zerafa is a top class operator and Harper believes he has learned much from that first career defeat.
“I can take a lot of positives from that loss,” he told bcb-promotions.com. “I cannot afford to lose two on the bounce though and the loser of this will probably have to stay at Area Title level.
“I don’t want to be mixing at that level; I want to be mixing it at least at English and British Title level.
“I need to beat Billy Bird. I know he has come from the white collar scene but I am not taking too much from that.
“The reason for that is because Nick Blackwell has come from that way and look what he did? Then you look at BCB’s very own Lennox Clarke and there have been a few good white collar fighters and they have come onto the pro scene and they have done really well.
“He has won 18 out of 19 with only two stoppages, but I have spoken to a lot of boxers who have fought him and I know he carries more power than his record suggest.”
With Harper’s last fight taking him all the way to Australia, a trip to Brentwood holds no fear for the Hurricane.
“I came back to Birmingham to fight Ryan Kelly and he had hundreds of people cheering for him and it didn’t bother me,” he added.
“I flew to Australia alone and that didn’t bother me either and I was fighting in some else’s back garden, I got paid a fair bit of money and what not.
“I will go anywhere and I will fight anyone and I think I have proved that now.
“This will be my third fight away from home and I think all my opponents have a record of something like 48-3 combined from my last three fights.
“If you look at that I am not doing this the easy way and I could be doing it the small hall route and boxing journeymen but I want to fight good people.
“As then I can elevate myself as quickly as possible and that is what boxing is about to me.
“I can’t ask for a better team around me; my sponsors and everyone at BCB, with Errol Johnson, Dan Mole and Paul Mann, with Malcolm Melvin my coach. The title is coming home with me tonight.”
You can watch tonight’s fight live on IFL TV:
