What could possibly make a belting fight night starring Hughie Fury, Savannah Marshall and Lewis Ritson, plus a ton of North-East talent even better?
The sight of Chris Eubank Jnr in Newcastle, that’s what. Oh, and his trainer, boxing royalty Roy Jones Jnr.
Eubank has been added to Saturday’s bumper North-East show at the Utilita Arena, where Sky Sports and BOXXER stage the second of their UK events.
The 32-year-old had, of course, been scheduled to top the bill on their first association, at Wembley last weekend, only to have TWO opponents fall through, first Sven Elbir because of Covid and then sub, Anatoli Muratov, because of “medical concerns”.
Chris will now face the highly-adept Wanik Awidjan, a German of Kurdish heritage who is a former IBF Youth middleweight world champion and has lost only once in 29 contests.
“This was already a fantastic fight card stacked from top to bottom with world champions, top contenders and rising stars,” said BOXXER founder Ben Shalom.
“The addition of Chris Eubank Jnr confirms this as a can’t-miss event and probably the UK fight card of the year.”
Sky’s head of boxing development, Adam Smith, added: “We’re delighted to add Chris Eubank to an action-packed Newcastle bill, topped by Savannah Marshall’s world title fight, live on Sky Sports.
“It was incredibly unfortunate that Chris couldn’t fight last weekend but fighter safety comes first.
“Now we welcome him back in an intriguing clash with Wanik Awdijan.
“Chris has big aspirations of fighting the world’s top middleweights – and he’ll be eager to deliver an explosive display on a red-hot night in the North-East.”
It isn’t Junior’s first appearance at the Utilita Arena.
Back in the summer of 2014, he was on the undercard of Stuart Hall’s world title fight with Lee Butler, a show which featured Jon Lewis Dickinson, Bradley Saunders and Tommy Ward and others.
That night, with his dad in his corner (pictured), he stopped the Czech Republic’s Stepan Horvath in six rounds.
Since then, Eubank has been IBO world champion and a WBSS finalist and remains intent on clinching a major world title.
Savannah Marshall is already the world middleweight champ and defends her WBO belt against Lolita Muzeya, while Lewis Ritson looks to make a wining return against USA’s former world title challenger Henry Lundy, with Hughie Fury in heavyweight action against German power-puncher Christian Hammer.
Some top North-East talent is on the undercard, Mark Dickinson, April Hunter, Georgia O’Connor, Steve Robinson and Michael Webster.
Words: Roy Kelly Picture: Tom Collins
