If you asked North-East boxing aficionados for an inactive fighter they would love to see active again it would be fair to predict the name Jeff Saunders might crop up a few times.
The good news is that Saunders IS back after a two-and-a-half absence and appears on the Jobes Boxing event at Houghton-le-Spring on Saturday night.
Saunders will take on Rochdale’s Richard Helm over six rounds on the eight-fight card which features debuts for Nathan Forrest and Andy Simpson.
It is exciting to have the Sedgefield welterweight back inside the ropes at the Rainton Arena, where he will be chasing his 15th win.
When ‘Hands of Stone’ clocked up victory number 12 in Newcastle in 2017, outpointing fellow unbeaten prospect, Steven Lewis, he looked on the cusp of doing something special.
But a medical issue took him out of the sport before returning in the summer of 2019.
Sadly, we’ve only witnessed 10 rounds from Jeff since, winning on points in Dunston against Rhys Saunders in July 2019 before outpointing Edvinas Paplauskas at Newcastle in February 2020.
Twenty-nine months on and the younger brother of Olympian, Bradley, resumes and hopefully he’s back to stay.
Saturday’s return against the Lancashire veteran should not stretch him too much and after the ring-rust is dusted off it would be great to see him climbing the title ladder again.
Talking of title ladders, back in just two months is Matt McCallum.
The undefeated Morpeth boxer, part of the Jobes Boxing stable, will box with the proud tag of being the Northern Area super-middleweight champion.
He too goes over six rounds against a seasoned Lancashire campaigner, Seamus Devlin.
Jobes Boxing team-mate, Nathan Cummiskey, makes a quick return too and he’ll be looking to bury the pain of a first career loss at the Summer Rumble in Sunderland last month when he was beaten by Petar Aleksandrov.
Here he will box a very familiar, and busy, figure in Russia’s Rustem Fatkhullin, who pretty much fights every week and can be an awkward so-and-so if he puts his mind to it.
The other six-rounder is a female bout as Consett’s Kerry Haley aims to double her win tally by beating Poland’s Bojona Libiszewska.
Kerry, a member of the Wallsend Boxing Academy, delighted her fans on her debut last month by outpointing Karina Szmalenberg in Gateshead.
That Dennis Hobson event at the Hilton featured a thrilling debut from Adam Hepple.
The Seaham fighter, trained by Jordan Williams at the Twins Academy in Trimdon, sent Mohamed Cherif Benchadi to the canvas on the way to a points verdict over the Frenchman. He faces Lancashire’s Ryan Hibbert at the Rainton Arena.
A new Jobes Boxing signing, Jamie King, will be in action at Houghton, where he meets yet another Lancashire opponent, Jake Darnell.
Originally from Welwyn Garden City, the 31-year-old had won all three of his pro contests in Dubai where he was based with MTK.
There will be two debuts at Rainton.
Jobes Boxing’s Andy Simpson will box over four rounds against ‘Pocklingtoin Rocket’ Harry Matthews, a welcome opportunity for the Newcastle light-heavy who was due to make his bow last December.
There is a welcome into the paid ranks for ex-Barnard Castle ABC star Nathan Forrest.
The Bishop Auckland lad, managed by Phil Jeffries, is up against Paul Scaife, from South Yorkshire, over four.
Words: Roy Kelly Picture: Tom Collins
