WEEKEND BOXING PREVIEW - 25TH SEPTEMBER

A jam-packed month of boxing continues this weekend with two big cards from Birmingham and London, PLUS a stacked BKFC card from Manchester, with one of the biggest fights in bare-knuckle boxing history headlining — and that’s where we will start.

BKFC 94 - Till vs Romero

This Saturday night, two of the biggest MMA stars of the past decade go fist to fist in the squared circle as Darren Till takes on the legendary Yoel Romero in Manchester.

After announcing that he was to take a break from MMA and instead turn his attention to boxing, Darren Till has been a bit of a revelation.

Three fights, three wins and two stoppages. It became a struggle to match him after his fight with Tommy Fury fell through, so when Bare Knuckle FC came calling, it was an opportunity he couldn’t refuse.

In his debut last time out, he survived a first-round knockdown to stop Aaron Chalmers with a trademark left hook, a shot he has become renowned for over the years in combat sports.

Here, he takes on a combat sports legend as he faces off with the “Soldier of God” himself, Yoel Romero.

He stopped Theo Doukas on his bare-knuckle debut last September before suffering a points defeat to Russian Vagab Vagabov, and now goes into his fight with Till with a bare-knuckle boxing record of 1-1.

Since that defeat to Vagabov, he has fought in bare-knuckle MMA, where he obliterated Alex Nicholson in just over a minute, so he does come into this fight in winning form.

In terms of the fight, the majority of the advantages lie with Till.

At 33, he’s 16 years younger than the 49-year-old Cuban Romero, so he will undoubtedly have the advantage when it comes to speed, footwork, sharpness and, more than likely, cardio.

In terms of chin and power, though, it might be a little bit harder to split them.

Despite having a freestyle wrestling background, 13 of Romero’s 16 wins in MMA came by KO or TKO, so clearly he’s got monstrous power. Along with the fact that he’s only been stopped ONCE in his entire career, he’s arguably got one of the best chins in combat sports history.

It might be wise for Till to take this fight long and look to work the body. Romero will be strong in the clinch, so that will be Till’s chance to chip away at that ageing body of Romero’s and look to break him down that way instead of going headhunting in search of that highlight-reel KO.

Till is understandably a big favourite, but you can never afford to write off the great Yoel Romero, no matter what combat sport it’s in.

In the chief support, Bolton’s former British boxing champ Jack Cullen challenges for the BKFC Middleweight Title in just his third outing without the gloves on.

With 12 fights in bare-knuckle, Mundell is much more experienced and it’s undoubtedly a huge test for Cullen. But if he can use that three-inch reach advantage and keep the fight long, then ultimately try to get Mundell to fall in and counter him, he may well just have that belt over his shoulder come the end of the fight.

Davies vs Collins

To Birmingham now, where Liam Davies is set to make the first defence of his EBU European Featherweight Title against the game Scotsman Nathaniel Collins in an absolute cracker.

Former European super-bantamweight champ Davies has bounced back from the first defeat of his career with back-to-back victories against Kurt Walker and, most recently, Francesco Grandelli back in March.

Collins, meanwhile, suffered the first defeat of his career last time out in his rematch with Cristobal Lorente, but prior to that, he was unbeaten in 18 fights and was starting to build an impressive CV.

Davies looked good at super-bantam, but he’s looked even better up at featherweight. Despite Collins campaigning at 126lbs for the majority of his career, Davies is by far the bigger man, and that size and power differential will more than likely prove to be the defining factor in how this fight goes.

Both men don’t mind sitting in the pocket, so expect them to go toe-to-toe for periods of this fight as both look to prove they’re the heavier-handed.

Zuffa Boxing 11 - Fisher vs Pirotton

The popular heavyweight contender Johnny Fisher makes his Zuffa Boxing debut this Saturday night at the Copper Box Arena when he takes on the 12-2 Belgian Michael Pirotton in what is expected to be a hostile home crowd.

Fisher bounced back from his defeat to Dave Allen with a fourth-round TKO of Ivan Balaz nearly a year ago and, following that, he parted ways with Matchroom to team up with Zuffa Boxing and Dana White.

In the away corner, Michael Pirotton is a bit of an unknown entity despite having fought 14 times as a professional.

Half of his victories to date have come by way of stoppage, and his only two defeats have come at the hands of then-undefeated fighters, so this is clearly a man who knows his way around a boxing ring.

It isn’t by any means the toughest test of Fisher’s career, and understandably so as he looks to continue his rebuild following his defeat to Dave Allen. Expect The Romford Bull to showcase his power once again and prove just too much for his Belgian opponent.

On the undercard, there are some cracking contests.

Light-heavyweight contenders Craig Richards and Radivoje Kalajdzic put it all on the line, with the winner well in contention for a world title shot, whilst English rivals Lee Cutler and Louis Greene go toe-to-toe in what is pretty much guaranteed to be a Fight of the Night contender.

Another fighter to watch out for is the undefeated Aussie-Mexican Cesar Mateo Tapia, who takes on the 17-1 Leo Ruiz in what, on paper, looks like it has all the ingredients for a fiery contest.

Three big cards of boxing across the country — what a night we have in store this Saturday.