Josh Leather: record, next fight and profile →
Ohara Davies warmed up for his next fight next month with a points win. The Hackney lightweight was fighting at welterweight at Elland Road in Leeds, as part of the undercard to hometown hero Josh Warrington’s IBF featherweight world title challenge against Lee Selby, after two late changes of opponent.
Former British champion Liam Williams has been handed a route back into contention after the BBBoC matched him against Asinia Bufield for the vacant British light-middleweight belt. The Board’s latest title circular has revealed that the purse bids are due in by noon on Wednesday June 13 (as are all bids, unless stated otherwise) and that the contest must take place by the end of September.
IT WILL NOT have gone unnoticed among the boxing fans who keep their eyes permanently peeled on the lookout for fight announcements that we were able to reveal a fistful of potential humdingers over the course of the last week. The WBO world middleweight title defence by Billy Joe Saunders against Martin Murray at the 02 Arena on June 23 will now be handsomely supported by two contests that will certainly capture the imagination of the fight fraternity and beyond.
Two exciting domestic match-ups have been confirmed for the undercard of Billy Joe Saunders’ WBO Middleweight World Title defence against Martin Murray at The O2 on June 23. Heavyweight sensation Daniel Dubois (7-0, 7 KO’s) takes on Hatfield’s Tom Little (10-5, 3 KO’s) for the Vacant English Heavyweight Championship and undefeated Guisborough Super-Lightweight talent Josh Leather (13-0, 6 KO’s) squares off with highly-ranked Hackney man Ohara Davies (16-1, 13 KO’s).
WE CAREFULLY MANAGED to prise Ohara Davies from under a double decker last week and handed him a ticket to ride in the thriving super lightweight division. I am delighted to bring him onboard and we can now extend the great thing we have got going at the weight involving Terry Flanagan, Jack Catterall and Josh Leather.
Nathan Gorman added another belt to his collection. The former Central Area heavyweight king won the WBC International Silver bauble in Newcastle. Gorman, trained by Ricky Hatton, is just 21 and produced a mature display at the Metro Radio Arena, exclusively live on BT Sport and BoxNation.
MTK Global are delighted to announce that Paul Gibson has joined the company as Director of International Operations. The appointment forms part of the recent Management Buy-In and Paul will play a key role in MTK Global’s future as it looks to consolidate and then build upon five years of rapid growth. He will be heavily involved in both the boxing and the commercial side of the business.
Historically, the former pit towns of England’s north-east have served as a breeding ground for ‘no nonsense’ hard men and Sunderland super-lightweight Glenn Foot fits that stereotype perfectly. The 30 year old former ABA finalist, known locally as ‘The Hammer’ has had as many scraps on the streets as between the strands and twice his promising career was almost curtailed by ‘out of hours’ skirmishes.
Monster hitting Gennady Golovkin enters as a marginal favourite when he puts his WBA Super, IBF, IBO and WBC middleweight gongs up for tender against Mexican terror Saul ‘Canelo’ Alverez in the BoxNation screened shootout on September 16th. But the ace faces of British boxing begged to differ with the bookies when Glynn Evans canvassed the trade ahead of what is surely the Fight of the Year.
I was told a couple of weeks ago about an interview with my Matchroom counterpart Eddie Hearn and – while you might be surprised to read this – I actually agreed with what he said. Hearn was being questioned over the recent date clashes of our shows and he rightly stated that it was not a deliberate ploy by either party. It is not in anyone’s best interests but, on some occasions, it is unfortunately unavoidable during busy periods.