Ready to Rumble? The time is almost here.
Alas, if you were fond of the annual Sunday excursion to the Stadium of Light for an afternoon of outdoor boxing then you will be disappointed.
However, as the saying suggests, the show must go on, and your Summer Rumble for 2023 will go ahead on Friday evening at Rainton Arena, where Jobes Boxing stage a nine-fight card.
Just like the 2022 Rumble, a Northern Area championship scrap will headline the event with Matt McCallum defending his super-middleweight belt against Adam Hepple in a tasty Morpeth v Seaham scrap.
How nice it would have been for it to be fought out at the Stadium of Light but, sadly, Sunderland AFC hiked up their prices and no agreement could be made between club and Wearside fight figure Phil Jeffries.
But, just a few miles down the A690 in Houghton, some of the best Jobes and Jeffries talent will be strutting their stuff in a great venue with an atmosphere that’s second to none.
McCallum v Hepple is the stand-out act, while the excellent Joe Maphosa is in action and there are appearances from exciting unbeaten prospects, Bobby Dalton, Alex Farrell, Ewan Mackenzie, Sam Menzies and Michael Webster.
It is a case of take two for McCallum and Hepple after injury ruled out the defending champion at the April 1 event at the same location.
Sometimes a fight does not always live up to expectations, but this does have fireworks written all over it after the rivals have indulged in some lively exchanges in the build-up.
McCallum, who won the title last July from holder Mike McGoldrick via a seventh-round stoppage, is very exciting to watch.
He enters this contest off the back of his sole career defeat, when he was stopped late on by Aberdeen’s Boris Crighton in the England v Scotland Christmas cracker on the Jobes dinner show in Gateshead in December.
Hepple, whose fight log reads 3-0, is not shy on the entertainment front either, downing Mohamed Benchadi twice on his debut last summer in Gateshead, before outpointing Ryan Hibbert in Houghton ahead of a six-round verdict over Konstantin Aleksandrov in Rotherham in November.
Teessider Webba, who had been linked with an English cruiserweight championship fight earlier this year, is the only boxer currently minus an opponent but the rest are matched up.
Thornaby super-flyweight Maphosa, hopefully not far away from a return to title action himself, goes in with Liverpool’s Jack Dwyer over six rounds.
Greek-Geordie Farrell, who fights out of the East Durham gym of David Binns, is another on the cusp of something big, and he chases his 10 win in a row against Jensen Irving, from Swindon.
South Shields’s ‘Pocket Rocket’ Menzies is just two wins behind the ‘Black Diamond’ and he will start an overwhelming favourite against Chorlton’s Stephen Jackson.
Hard-hitting Jarrow southpaw Mackenzie, boxing north of the Tyne these days at Forest Hall, also boasts a 7-0 record and he faces Ukraine opposition in Artem Liashevych.
Redcar dynamo Dalton, who has taken to the pro game like a duck to water, gets to go over six rounds for the first time, as he meets Rochdale’s Richard Helm.
There is a third pro appearance for Dundee’s Charlie Doig, who tackles Thaun Wright, from Cheshire, while there is a professional debut for Durham’s former MMA fighter, Aaron Peet. He is up against Ukraine’s Mykhailo Sovtus.
Words: Roy Kelly
