TYSON FURY VS ARSLANBEK MAKHMUDOV - FULL UNDERCARD PREVIEW

All eyes will be on Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this weekend as Tyson Fury makes his highly anticipated return to the ring against Arslanbek Makhmudov, but before that, there’s a stacked undercard featuring one of the biggest names in world boxing, along with two cracking heavyweight 50/50s.

First up, let’s take a close look at the co-main event, where Conor Benn takes on former two-time world champion Regis Prograis.

A man who has been making headlines for reasons more to do with his actions outside of the ring than in it over the past couple of months, Conor Benn looks to put himself into world title contention with a victory over Regis Prograis here.

After going unbeaten in his first 23 outings as a professional, Benn suffered the first defeat of his career to Chris Eubank Jr before avenging that loss in the rematch last year.

Both of those fights took place at middleweight, and after that victory over Eubank Jr, Benn made his intentions clear to head back down to welterweight and challenge for the WBC World Welterweight Title — hence why this fight has been made at a catchweight of 150lbs.

For Prograis, it’s been a tricky couple of years.

He’s only managed to fight three times in the past 33 months, and two of those fights were defeats, albeit to top opposition in Jack Catterall and Devin Haney.

He did, however, bounce back to form in his last fight back in August, when claiming a comfortable points victory over former two-weight world champion JoJo Diaz.

As has been well publicised, this will be Benn’s first fight under the Zuffa Boxing banner, and it really is an intriguing fight which no one really saw coming.

For starters, the weight. Prograis’s heaviest fighting weight to date was back in November 2013, when he weighed in at 151lbs for his four-round fight against journeyman Miguel Alvarez — a fight in which he claimed a third-round stoppage. Having pretty much been a career super-lightweight since, and having weighed in at 142lbs for his last fight against JoJo Diaz, it’ll be intriguing to see how he deals with the step up in weight.

Likewise, it’s a weight that Conor Benn hasn’t been too familiar with throughout his career. After campaigning at welterweight for the majority of his career, he stepped up to super-welterweight and then middleweight in his last four fights, weighing in at 159¼lbs in his last fight against Chris Eubank Jr.

Prograis is coming up and Benn is coming down, so it’ll be intriguing to see who looks the better when the pair step on the scales on Friday night.

In terms of ring experience and big-fight experience, Prograis has that in abundance, having fought the likes of Jack Catterall, Josh Taylor, Devin Haney, JoJo Diaz and Jose Zepeda, whereas for Benn, the only real big fights of his career have come against Eubank Jr.

Along with that experience, though, comes tougher fights and, despite having fought 52 more rounds than Benn, Prograis is certainly the one with more miles on the clock, so Benn will undoubtedly be the fresher of the two — unless the drop in weight has taken its toll.

It’s a difficult fight to call. There are a lot of unknowns with both fighters, as previously mentioned. Is Prograis completely past his best? Does Benn have what it takes to challenge the best in the world at 154lbs and potentially 147lbs? Those are just two of many questions that will be answered this weekend.

Eddie Hearn revealed recently that he has heard Prograis is carrying numerous injuries and, if so, it’ll be hard to look past Benn.

However, if this is the beginning of the Indian summer of the American’s career, then Benn will need to be at his very best to deal with the threat.

If either of them manages to win this convincingly, they’ll certainly put themselves into world title contention, most likely at welterweight.

Onto the two remaining fights on the main card, and they’re two potential heavyweight crackers.

First up, Jeamie TKV defends his British heavyweight title against Richard Riakporhe.

After a controversial defeat to David Adeleye for the title in April of last year, Tshikeva put in a mature performance to outpoint Frazer Clarke and claim the vacant title at the second time of asking in November.

A British champion down at cruiserweight, Richard Riakporhe suffered the first defeat of his career at the hands of Chris Billam-Smith when challenging for the WBO World Title back in 2024. Standing at 6’5”, he always looked like he was boiling himself down to make cruiserweight and, after that flat performance against Billam-Smith, he’s stepped up to heavyweight and secured back-to-back stoppage victories.

On paper, it’s a really tough fight to call. Riakporhe has looked a monster since stepping up, but TKV has experience against much bigger guys that Riakporhe doesn’t have.

Expect the former cruiserweight world title challenger to start quickly. TKV has shown that he can be hurt, and Riakporhe will believe he has the power to become the third man to stop the reigning champion, but TKV is clearly a man who is growing in confidence with every victory.

If he can use his feet and make Riakporhe fall in with his shots — or even fall in love with his power too much — he’ll have openings to either pick him off or put a real dent in him and deliver a similar performance to the one which saw him claim the British title against Clarke.

As much as they can box, these are two men who are heavy-handed, so don’t be surprised to see a highlight-reel knockout for either of them here.

Onto the final fight on the card, and it’s an Ashes cracker as England’s Frazer Clarke takes on Australia’s Justis Huni, with both fighters aiming to return to winning ways after suffering defeats.

Two amateur standouts — Clarke, an Olympic bronze medallist, and Huni, a World Championships bronze medallist — were meant to clash in the GeeBee Super-Heavyweight final in Helsinki back in 2019. However, Huni was forced to withdraw from the contest after suffering a cut in the semi-final.

Now, just over seven years later to the day, the pair will be going glove to glove in the professional ranks on one of the biggest cards of the year.

Stylistically, these two are really similar.

They were both established amateurs and, with them now 12 and 13 fights into their professional careers respectively, they’ve been transitioning that fluid amateur style into a more patient, power-focused professional style.

Both have suffered defeats to Fabio Wardley in contrasting fashions. In a fight many believed he had won, Clarke could only manage a draw against the newly crowned WBO World champion before suffering a devastating first-round stoppage defeat in the rematch.

In his fight with Wardley — his last fight back in June — Huni was putting on a bit of a boxing clinic before getting caught by a huge right hand in the 10th round, and before he knew it, the fight was over.

Clarke didn’t fare much better in his last fight either. After starting quickly against Jeamie Tshikeva for the vacant British heavyweight title, the Olympic bronze medallist seemed to fade and produced a rather lacklustre performance, with TKV ultimately getting the decision on the judges’ scorecards.

Even though this fight will likely be a chess match due to how similar their styles are, it’s a must-win for both. Defeat for Huni means he will be well down the pecking order in the heavyweight division, but defeat for Clarke, at the age of 34, could be even more detrimental to his career.

One of them will more than likely have to get on the front foot, force the pace, and take two shots to land one.

Both are good body punchers, both have quick hands and feet, and both have a very high boxing IQ.

It’s going to be a purist’s dream.

Who’ll win? We’ll have to wait until Saturday night to find out.

Now to the rest of the card, and it’s certainly a busy undercard with seven fights on it.

Former British middleweight champion Felix Cash returns to action against Liam O’Hare in a solid test after nearly two years out of the ring.

Simon Zachenhuber, who was scheduled to face Troy Williamson before Williamson withdrew from the contest, takes on Somerset-based Pole Pawel August in a quality battle between two undefeated super-middleweights.

Also on the card, Turki Alalshikh’s favourite Scouser Mikie Tallon will be looking to move to 12-0, whilst tricky southpaw Elliot Whale will be hoping to pick up the biggest win of his career against Tom Hill.

Breyon Gorham and Sultan Almohammed will be aiming to continue their unbeaten starts to their careers, whilst Tyson Fury’s cousin, Ricky Gorman, fights for the second time as a professional against Ryan Labourn.

A busy night of boxing — but one that promises to be unforgettable.