All Ellis Corrie and Tom Hill want for Christmas is the Northern Area title.
But for North-East fight fans, their wish-list has already been granted – a pre-Christmas cracker of a show at the Rainton Meadows Arena on Friday, December 13.
Promoters Phil Jeffries and Steve Wraith have assembled a belting cast list on the undercard of Corrie v Hill for the welterweight belt.
April Hunter makes her second professional appearance following a superb debut at the Utilita Arena, where she outpointed Borislava Goranova.
The Howdon girl is Newcastle’s first female in the paid ranks since 2001 and has a very bright future.
Joe Maphosa certainly has a bright future, very bright, even if the middle part of 2019 has been one of frustration for the Imran Naeem-trained boxer, with two appearances cancelled at very short notice.
The gifted Teesside super-flyweight (pictured in his March win over Louis Norman) is on the verge of big things but needs to get moving again and this show will provide him with that spark.
Like his Wallsend Boxing Academy team-mate April Hunter, Lawrence Osueke is straight back into the ring following his fight on Bad Blood.
His British light-heavyweight championship eliminator did not go to plan, ending in a scrappy draw, but he very much remains a contender at 12st 7lbs.
If the Nik Gittus-trained boxer needed an example of how to react from a British eliminator not going smoothly, he only has to look at Simon Vallily.
Just 12 months ago, Middlesbrough’s former Commonwealth Games gold medalist appeared out in the cold after a disastrous appearance on a big show in Newcastle, but he has responded with three consecutive stoppage wins and he too will be in action at Houghton, where he will be out to make it four in a row.
There is plenty of other talent on show.
Terence Wilkinson got very much back on track – not that he ever fell off it – when he made it eight wins from eight at the Utilita Arena.
The unbeaten light-welterweight, from Walker, had got embroiled in a battle in his previous bout but his win on the Bad Blood show over Daryl Pearce was much more like the ‘Wilka’ we’ve come to know and love.
Dave Binns will have not just have Hill on the bill at Houghton.
Exciting new talent Alex Farrell takes to the ring for the third time after impressing in Sunderland and Newcastle already.
A Greek national champion, from Rhodes, he is a student at Northumbria University as well as being a very gifted pupil at the East Durham gym in Peterlee.
Words: Roy Kelly Picture: Tom Collins/ Stockton & Billingham Life
