Just how many seconds does it take to accept a fight on the Côte d’Azur?
The answer is ‘not many’. Just ask Alex Farrell who will be making his fifth professional appearance at that very posh end of France next month.
The unbeaten 23-year-old will box on a world title show in Cannes on Sunday, December 13.
You may or may not know Cannes for its annual international film festival, or the fact it’s a rather fancy French Riviera resort just down the Mediterranean coast from the likes of Nice, Monte Carlo and St Tropez.
One thing is for sure, while it might not be sun-bathing weather there in December, it’s not a shabby location for the Peterlee-based boxer to strut his stuff for the first time since February.
The part-Greek, part-English, part Geordie light-middleweight has reeled off four professional victories, all in his adopted North-East, against Arvydas Trizno, Saif Zahoor, Kearon Thomas and Jan Ardon.
“It is a very big opportunity,” Farrell told punch-lines.
“I’ve trained with [world number three light-middleweight] Michel Soro in France and after that he told me he wanted me on his undercard of his next fight.
“That is now happening on December 13.
“It is an honour for me to be fighting on a world championship undercard and it is my chance to show what I’ve been working for.
“I don’t know my opponent yet but should know next week or so.”
Soro is one of the star names on a show which is headlined by French/Armenia Arsen Goulamirian’s WBA world cruiserweight title defence against Russia’s Yury Kashinsky.
For those who have caught sight of Farrell in Sunderland, Houghton or Newcastle, he looks some talent.
An amateur national champion in his homeland of Greece, Farrell is a student at Northumbria University in Newcastle and is a boxing pupil at the East Durham College gym of Dave Binns and is managed by Phil Jeffries.
Words: Roy Kelly Picture: Tom Collins/ East Durham Life
