YAFAI OUT TO TAKE ONE STEP CLOSER TO WORLD STARDOM

After a week off last week, big-time boxing returns to the shores of England this weekend as Olympic gold medallist Galal Yafai defends his WBC World ‘Interim’ Flyweight Title against Mexico’s Francisco Rodriguez Jr in what looks set to be a sold-out Resorts World Arena in Yafai’s home city of Birmingham.

Before the main event, there’s a cracking undercard featuring future stars such as Pat Brown, Hamza Uddin, Giorgio Visioli, Aaron Bowen, Ibraheem Sulaimaan and the debut of Tiah Mai Ayton — and that’s where we’ll start first.

A European and World Kickboxing champion as a youngster, Tiah Mai Ayton could well be the biggest prospect in women’s boxing worldwide. The 18-year-old is 21-0 in the amateurs and won the famous Haringey Box Cup a year ago, securing stoppage wins in both the semi-final and final. And if that wasn’t enough, she’s a five-time national champion.

Matchroom announced the signing of the Bristolian earlier this year, and she’s certainly one to keep a close eye on as she looks to steal the show on debut this weekend.

Olympian Pat Brown will lace up the gloves as a professional for the second time when he faces Croatia’s Ivan Duka, whilst Aaron Bowen looks to move to 6-0 in the paid ranks against Alvaro Godoy.

The flamboyant Hamza Uddin takes on Joshua Vallejo in a nice little step-up before Giorgio Visioli aims to pick up his third win — and third stoppage — of 2025, fresh off the back of his trip to the States to spar the likes of Curmel Moton. He faces Elias Duguet, and then ‘The Spider’ himself, Ibraheem Sulaimaan, completes the main undercard when he takes on the tough Brian Phillips.

Now to the main card — and it’s an absolute belter.

It’s a rarity that a well-matched fight falls through just two weeks before fight night and an opponent steps in who is more than capable of making it a different — but just as interesting — contest.

However, here we have exactly that.

Originally scheduled to fight Shabaz Masoud in a cracking all-British encounter, Olympian Peter McGrail will now take on the game and exciting Ionut Baluta.

After suffering a shock defeat to Ja’Rico O’Quinn 18 months ago, McGrail has bounced back with three impressive victories over Marc Leach, Brad Foster and Rhys Edwards.

Here, though, he faces a completely different type of opponent to those three names.

With a record of 17-5-1, Baluta has built up a reputation as one of the most exciting away fighters on the domestic circuit.

Victories over the likes of TJ Doheny, Brad Foster and McGrail’s gymmates Andrew Cain and Brad Strand mean he very much asks questions of prospects that they haven’t had to answer before.

He’s a completely different type of fighter to Masoud, so he may well prove tricky early on for McGrail — but expect him to suss him out eventually and, more than likely, claim a comfortable points victory.

In the co-main event, it’s another absolute cracker. Wolverhampton vs Manchester. Champion vs challenger. Brawler vs brawler. Moore vs Maylett. This has got 'Fight of the Night' written all over it.

Fresh off the back of his terrific comeback win against Harry Scarff, hometown favourite Conah Walker faces off with the experienced and exciting Liam Taylor for the British Welterweight Title.

Full of momentum after winning four of his last five, Walker has been one of the shining lights of British boxing over the past couple of years since his shock win over Cyrus Pattinson. Victories against Lloyd Germain, Lewis Ritson and, as previously mentioned, Harry Scarff have followed — including a narrow defeat to Lewis Crocker.

His fan-friendly, all-action style has made him a bit of a cult favourite and has seen him secure a deal with Matchroom. Along with that, his move up north to be trained by Jamie Moore and Nigel Travis will only have helped his development.

However, he faces arguably one of the most underrated fighters in British boxing right now.

Taylor cruised to 11-0 early in his career before losing out to Tyrone Nurse on points in a fight he took on just four days’ notice.

Since that defeat, he’s won 17 of his 19 contests — including a victory over Nurse in a 2018 rematch — with his only loss coming in another late-notice bout against the hard-hitting David Avanesyan.

The Middleton man has long been a mainstay of the “who-needs-them club” on the domestic scene — but here, he finally gets his opportunity on the big stage, and deservedly so.

So, how does the fight go?

Well, if there’s one thing these two love, it’s a good old-fashioned tear-up. Despite both being technically sound on the back foot as well, most of the time they just can’t help themselves.

Taylor’s got the experience on his side, so if one of them is going to box clever, you’d think it would be him. And with the home crowd behind him, Walker will want to deliver the goods in emphatic style.

This could well turn into a fight that could’ve taken place in a phone box — so whatever you do on Saturday night, make sure you’re near a telly or laptop to catch this one, because it will not disappoint.

Now to the main event, where Galal Yafai will be looking to make a successful first defence of his WBC ‘Interim’ World Flyweight Title against the vastly more experienced Francisco Rodriguez Jr.

After winning gold at the Tokyo Olympics, Yafai’s rise to the top in the professional ranks has been nothing short of exceptional.

Eleven fights, eleven wins and nine stoppages — including that of former world champ Sunny Edwards in his last outing — the younger brother of Kal and Gamal has shown on countless occasions that he’s got more than enough talent to be Britain’s next superstar.

With 46 professional contests to his name, Rodriguez Jr heads into the fight with more than double the number of stoppage wins than Yafai has had total fights — that’s the difference in experience right there.

A former minimumweight world champion back in 2014, he’s since come up short when challenging for world titles at both light-flyweight and super-flyweight.

Is he a step up from Edwards in terms of opposition? Most definitely not — but it’ll still be a solid test for Galal, and one we expect him to pass with flying colours.

Chocolatito is the only man to have stopped Rodriguez — but that came over 11 years ago. So, if Galal can get the stoppage, it’ll be one heck of a statement.