UNBEATEN BROWN TAKES ON DURABLE DUCAR IN MANCHESTER

Patrick James Brown…

Quite comfortably, at the moment, one of the biggest prospects not just in British boxing but in world boxing, and this Friday night he returns to action against the tough, rugged, well-travelled Czech, Vasil Ducar, on home soil in Manchester.

5-0 with five knockouts, Brown has taken the professional world by storm.

If you saw him fight in the amateurs, you’d have known for years that his style was made for the pros.

Heavy hands, a solid chin, explosive, with good footwork — and he prefers to plant his feet rather than move excessively — it’s easy to see why so many believe this young man is the future of the cruiserweight division.

He dispatched Federico Grandone on debut in the fourth round just over a year ago to the day, before stoppage wins over Ivan Duka, Lewis Oakford, Austine Nnamdi and Felix Valera, all of which came inside two rounds.

On Friday night, though, he comes up against his toughest opponent to date.

Widely regarded as one of the toughest gatekeepers in the division, Vasil Ducar will be aiming to cause a huge shock on away soil this weekend. His record of 19 wins, seven defeats and two draws probably doesn’t reflect how good he really is.

He’s gone the distance with hard-hitters like Jordan Thompson, Chris Billam-Smith, Cheavon Clarke and Kevin Lerena, with his only stoppage defeat coming against Mike Perez, when he was forced to retire.

For us, this is quite literally the perfect piece of matchmaking for Brown at this stage of his career.

If he’s going to get rounds, then Ducar is the man to give them to him. If he’s going to get his chin tested, then Ducar is the man to test it.

The Czech isn’t going to sit on the back foot and try to survive — he’ll be more than willing to take the fight to Brown. He isn’t here just to make up the numbers; victory for him would potentially throw him back into the mix at world level.

Brown needs to be switched on. He’s shown us on enough occasions already that he won’t be reckless, but if he is here, he might get a bit of a surprise.

This won’t be a one-round job. It’ll be a classic case of Brown needing to bide his time, break Ducar down, and use his boxing IQ. Then, if at any stage he feels Ducar is ready to be taken out, he can shift up a gear and get the job done.

A stoppage win here would be enormous for Brown. He’s well known in the UK, but if he manages to get Ducar out of there early, it’ll certainly prick the ears of many boxing fans across the globe.

Before Brown and Ducar go toe-to-toe, there are some cracking match-ups on the undercard.

The exciting Jordan Thompson will be looking to bounce back from defeat to Lenier Pero on his heavyweight debut last year against the 17-9-1 Frenchman David Spilmont, whilst William Crolla, younger brother of Ant Crolla, will be hoping to make it back-to-back victories when he faces Irishman Glenn Byrne.

Josh Blenkiron and Robbie Colman go at it once again following their early Fight of the Year contender in January, whilst the likes of Alfie Middlemiss, the Croft twins and Russian Alexey Shendrik all feature.

A solid domestic card where we will certainly get a lot of questions answered about the future of Pat Brown.