Champions take part in city centre workout ahead of weekend promotion.
Professional boxing arrived in Birmingham city centre on Wednesday afternoon as the stars of the Matchroom promotion at the Resorts World Arena on Saturday 22nd June. The fighters, including local here Tyler Denny from Rowley Regis, who defends his Euopean middleweight title against the undefeated Felix Cash, took part in a public workout in St Martin’s Square. The fighters went through their paces, shadow boxing and sparring in front of an enthusastic crowd that included many youngsters from local boxing gyms.
Denny has a difficult task to retain the title he won in sensational style by stopping veteran Italian Matteo Signani in Wolverhampton last November. The 32 year old Black Country fighter, with a record of 17 wins and three draws from 22 fights will be against the forner British and Commonwealth champion Cash, who is aiming to make up for lost time after the pandemic and then a series of injuries brought what he hopes was a temporary halt to what seemed a golden future.
But while Denny knows he will be up aganst his toughest opponent to date, he remains confident. “Training’s going great. I’ve sold about 750 tickets. Conor Walker from Walsall’s fighting and Hamza Uddin from Walsall. There’ll be a great atmosphere, it’ll be a great night for local boxing.”
And while Denny would never take Cash lightly, he knows that a win on Saturday would propel him into the big time and perhaps a fight with another unbeaten middleweight, Hamzah Sheeraz, arguably the brightest propect in British boxing. But there’s one man he doesn’t fancy coming up against. Wolverhampton’s Ben Whittaker is making waves at light-heavy but Tyler has no aims to move up to challenge for the pride of the Black Cpuntry. “No, Ben’s my boy. I wish him all the best. Sheeraz is out there but we’ll see what happens.”
In an attractive undercard Lewis Crocker (19-0, 11 KOs) looks to extend his unbeaten run when he meets Wolverhampton’s Conah Walker (13-2-1, 5 KOs) in what promises to be an explosive match-up over ten rounds, slick Blyth prospect Cameron Vuong (4-0, 3 KOs) takes on late replacement Jeff Ofori (13-7-2, 4 KOs) over ten rounds at super-lightweight, Wwhile atford’s Shannon Ryan (7-0) and Newark’s Emma Dolan (6-0, 1 KO) create history when they become the first women to contest the British super-flyweight title, with Dolan’s Commonwealth Title also on the line.
Walsall flyweight prospect Hamza Uddin takes on Jose Maria Hernandez over six rounds, Oldham’s Aqib Fiaz(12-1, 1 KO) and Birmingham’s Kane Baker (19-11-2, 1 KO) clash over eight rounds at lightweight, Birmingham lightweight Ibraheem Sulaimaan (3-0, 2 KOs) looks to impress on home soil when he meets Jesus Gonzalez (3-1) over six rounds, Leicester super-bantamweight Muhammad Mustafa Ali (4-0, 1 KO) fights Kelvin Madjid over six rounds and Hamburg heavyweight Emanuel Odiase (2-0, 1 KO) kicks off the Before The Bell action.
The Matchroom bill is televised worldwide by DAZN and tickets for the Resorts World Arena are available here.
