WE HAVE BEEN back on the press conference beat over the last week, setting the ball rolling on a sequence of fights that you can call, without hesitation, proper bangers!
Of course, we started off by assembling many of the cast of the Return of the Magnificent 7 card that will take place up in Manchester on November 18.
What a line-up this one is! To boil it down simply to the status of the fights, we’ve got an Area title, three British title fights – with a Commonwealth belt thrown in for two of them – a European title, a WBC world title final eliminator and a WBC world title.
Any of the fights, on any normal week, could lay claim to being the headline attraction.
The pick of the bunch for many is the final eliminator collision between our featherweight firebrand Nick Ball and former world champion Isaac Dogboe.
The pair share physical similarities and, for once, our Nick won’t be having to punch upwards, which will be a nice experience for him. It is one of those fights where you are as sure as you can be that it won’t disappoint and will be an absolute cracker.
Next up we were able to officially announce the middleweight sizzler between Hamzah Sheeraz and Liam Williams that will take place at the Copper Box on December 2.
People are, quite rightly, very excited over the prospect of these two exchanging blows.
Hamzah, still just 24, appears to be riding on a one-way ticket right to the top of his trade. He continues to impress, fight after fight, and gives the impression of developing into an unstoppable force at 160lbs.
He is blowing a good level of opponent away with ease and needs a severe test.
Hamzah will get that, and then some, when he hops in with Liam in London.
We worked with Liam for a long time and, at middleweight, he too looked destined for world title honours. He embarked on a reign of terror after initially stepping up a weight to take on Mark Heffron and it quickly became clear that this was the weight for him.
He is a ferocious competitor and he will be motivated by the fact he is being drafted in to measure the progress of a younger fighter. This is not entirely true, however. We believe in Hamzah and what he can achieve but, in truth, this is a fight that can go either way and that is what people want to see.
Liam’s career momentum has stalled in recent times but he is now back on home turf working with Gary Lockett again and he will view this as an opportunity to reboot his own career prospects and fire up his old ‘Machine’ again.
As usual, Liam looks mean and motivated – maybe a little mellower – and we are looking forward to having him back on the Queensberry stage.
Our last port of call was another London gathering to drum up even more noise over the battle of the undefeated heavies between Fabio Wardley and David Adeleye for the British and Commonwealth titles over in Saudi Arabia on October 28.
Now this is a fight fans have been calling out for and I am thrilled that it will take its place as chief support to Tyson Fury-Francis Ngannou on the blockbuster heavyweight event to mark the opening of Riyadh Season 2023.
I doubt whether a British title fight will have ever had more eyes on it from right across the globe than this one will and what a fantastic opportunity this represents for both Fabio and David.
They can really announce themselves to the world and this is one of the best fights that can be made outside of the current elite band of heavyweights.
Thankfully, calm was restored after the little rumble of the red carpet a few weeks ago and now we can just look forward to a classic 50-50 fight. I don’t like all that push ’n’ shove nonsense during pre-fight rituals and never have, but it does seem to ratchet up the intensity of interest and I am sure people won’t want to miss the real thing.
So, with Wardley-Adeleye, Ball-Dogboe and Sheeraz-Williams approaching over the coming weeks, I really cannot think of a finer even money fight-treble for the fans to get stuck into.