British fight fans will get to see Tommy Ward’s next step towards a shot at world glory live on TV.
BoxNation will screen the 24-year-old’s WBO world super-bantamweight championship eliminator with Jesse Angel Hernandez in Kansas on February 15.
The red-hot pair will collide at the Kansas Star Arena with a crack at the World Boxing Organisation’s 126lb belt a prize for the winner.
It looks like being a real belter of a trans-Atlantic showdown, given the form and the calibre of the two protagonists.
Hernandez, from Texas, is rated as one of the USA’s leading prospects, having built up a 12-1 (7) record though Ward boasts a better run of 25-0 (3) with, perhaps crucially, the edge of having three championship bouts already under his belt.
Ward, rated at four by the WBO, is excited he will be watched by millions, with Showtime transmitting to the North American market.
“It’s great it’s being shown on TV live in the US and in Britain,” said the Hartlepool-trained Co Durham talent who told punch-lines he had no hesitation taking on the Fort Worth finisher.
“It’s my American debut, I’m looking forward to everything about it.
“A lot of fighters in my position, undefeated and with a high world ranking, wouldn’t have done this.
“But I am a boxer and love boxing, it’s a good fight so why not take it?
“It’s a great opportunity, the alternative was having a six or eight rounder somewhere and waiting my turn.
“But we have the chance to go there and make something happen.”
It is somewhat ironic that BoxNation, Frank Warren’s TV station, will be showing the NE Security-sponsored boxer from across the pond.
For details on how to order BoxNation for just £12 per month, click here.
Ward was, briefly, under the Warren umbrella, taking the British title from James ‘Jazza’ Dickens and then defending it in Newcastle against Shaun Davis.
However, when the British Boxing Board of Control ordered a Ward-Dickens re-match, Warren handed his purse bid back when he could not get a TV company to broadcast it.
But BoxNation undoubtedly have a cracker on their channel and victory for the Neil Fannan and Dave Garside star a week on Friday would surely give Ward a tilt for the WBO belt in 2019.
Team Ward, Tommy, brothers Martin and Jimmy, Fannan, his son, Neil, and British lightweight champion, Lewis Ritson, jet out to the States this Wednesday.
Words: Roy Kelly
