John O’Donnell believes that Craig Watson is trying to talk himself up ahead of their Commonwealth Welterweight title showdown in London this weekend. The two men go head to head in a top quality Commonwealth title matchup at the York Hall on Saturday night on a Hennessy Sports event which is live on ITV4.

The fight will be Watson’s second defence of his Commonwealth title following on from an impressive win over Matthew Hatton in a Manchster derby last time out. He’s predicting a stoppage win over O’Donnell but the Shepherd's Bush based challenger isn’t impressed.

“He’s been talking out of his arse but that’s up to him,” blasted O’Donnell. “Guys who talk like that are only trying to convince themselves, he can talk as much as he likes but it will be a different story in that ring – that’s where I’ll do my talking.

O’Donnell has 20 wins from his 21 pro fights to date with his solitary loss coming on the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather – Oscar De La Hoya fight in Las Vegas two years ago.

O’Donnell believes that Watson is making his prediction based solely on that defeat. “He’s probably looked at my record and saw that my only defeat was that stoppage loss in Las Vegas so he probably thinks he can do the same.

“People definitely read too much into that loss, my mind wasn’t on the job that night and I also had an ear issue which was affecting my balance and needed surgery afterwards to correct it. My trainer, Rob McCracken could see that I wasn’t right and he pulled me out. It was bitterly disappointing at the time but you learn from these things and I’ve had 5 good wins since then. Hopefully Watson has learned from that early knockout loss he had in Italy too!” 

McCracken will be back in O’Donnell’s corner on Saturday with the leading trainer making a quick return to the UK from Carl Froch’s training camp in Canada.

“I’ve been working with Rob for this fight for the last 13 weeks now so I’ve had loads of time with him,” said O’Donnell. “He headed to Canada with Carl at the weekend to set up their camp out there ahead of the Taylor fight but he’s coming back for my fight. This week is all about winding down anyway, all the hard work is done now and the important thing is that Rob will be there in the corner on the night.

“I’m ready to go right now. I’ll spend this week easing down, my weight is good and training’s gone great so I just want to get in there now and do the business.”

Watson V O’Donnell headlines a fantastic line-up of championship boxing at the York Hall in Bethnal Green. In the chief support bout Lenny Daws meets Peter McDonagh for the English Light Welterweight title while heavyweight sensation Tyson Fury, hot prospect Bradley Evans, Wembley’s Steve O’Meara and Irish Champ Stephen Haughian also feature on the undercard. Tickets are available from the Ticketline box office on 0844 888 4402 or via www.ticketline.co.uk .