Calum French will be part of Great Britain’s challenge of pulling off a great escape in the World Series of Boxing.
The European Championship bronze medallist has been named in the British Lionhearts team to face Astana Arlans in the second leg of their WSB semi-final in Atyrau City on Saturday.
Kazakhstan’s squad are red-hot favourites with the defending champions going into their home leg with a 3-2 advantage from the first leg in Sheffield.
French, pictured on his way to victory in Gateshead against Croatia in February, is unbeaten in two seasons of competing in WSB and how GB will be relying on the Birtley ABC star.
The 22-year-old, from Gateshead, will be joined in the Lionhearts team by fellow Brits, Will Cawley (flyweight), Carl Fail (welterweight) and Solomon Dacres (super-heavyweight).
Guest, Liridon Nuha of Sweden, completes the line-up when he fights at light-heavyweight on his debut appearance for the Lionhearts.
The British team trails 3-2 from last week’s first leg in Sheffield and will be looking for French, Fail (1-0) and Dacres (1-0) to preserve their unbeaten records in the competition if they are to make it into this year’s final.
If the match finishes tied at 5-5, there will be tie-break bout at welterweight, with another Birtley boxer, Cyrus Pattinson, boxing for the Lionhearts.
The match will be shown live on BoxNation from 12.20pm on Saturday. BoxNation is available on Sky 437/490HD, BT TV 415, Virgin 546, Freeview 268 and TalkTalk 415.
Words: Roy Kelly. Picture: Ian Horrocks/ WSB
