Last chance saloon. It is if Eddie Hearn is to be believed.
And who are we to question the world’s number one promoter, who is staging an intriguing domestic dust-up between Lewis Ritson and Conah Walker.
The welterweights meet in Birmingham on November 30, when Matchroom promote another terrific British match-up at the top of the card between Sunny Edwards and Galal Yafai.
“We’re here to upset the applecart and we’re more than 100 per cent confident that we can do that,” declared the Geordie favourite.
Walker v Ritson has ‘war’ written all over it and the stakes are high, given the fighters come into this 10-rounder at the Resorts World Arena off the back of defeats to unbeaten Irish talents.
Ritson gave a terrific effort against Paddy Donovan in Leeds in May, when he was stopped in the ninth round, while a month later Walker was outpointed by Lewis Crocker after 10 rounds at the Resorts World Arena.
It was a bump in the road for Walker who had pulled off a stunning result in the summer of 2023 at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham, where he stopped Cyrus Pattinson, ruining a planned Northumberland derby between Ritson and Pattinson in November in the process.
The Forest Hall hero, coached by dad Davy and mnaged by Phil Jeffries, instead had to wait until May to make his return following his eighth-round knock-out defeat to Ohara Davies in their WBA world welterweight title eliminator in March 2022.
You’d have to say that an in-form, hard-hitting southpaw was probably not the ideal opponent for Ritson for his first fight back, but Lewis was great on the night in Leeds, where he pushed his opponent all the way before running out of steam.
Boxing News reported how ‘there was still life left in the Sandman, but Donovan’s incredible precision and power won the day’.
Here in Birmingham, the former British champion, recently turned 31, is up against a slightly younger man in Conah, who is 29 and boasting a record of 13-3-1 with five of his wins coming early.
Ritson acknowledged it will be a tough challenge against the Wolverhampton fighter, but is up for it.
“I’ve got a really hard fight with Conah,” said Lewis, whose own fight log is an impressive 23-4 with 13 inside the distance. “He took his chance against Cyrus and he’s just getting better and better.
“I’ve got the ring rust off, I’m coming in off the loss to Paddy but I hadn’t been in the ring for a year and a half.
“Styles make fights and Paddy wasn’t the right style for me, I believe Conah is and we’re the right style for each other.
“It can’t be nothing but a barnstormer, it’s make or break for both of us so we have to win and we’re coming in as fit as we can and hopefully we can pull it off.
“We both like to come forward, we both like the body shots, we like to stand there and not give much ground.
“It’s survival of the fittest, Conah’s got a good engine on him, but we know what we have to do on the night, we need to be fitter than him, stronger than him, tougher than him, and we think we can do that.”
Ritson has set up the fight superbly not unlike Hearn, who said: “It’s must-win for them both and the styles will gel beautifully.
“This is a real throwback fight,” said the Matchroom supremo.
We can’t wait.
Words: Roy Kelly Picture: Mark Robinson/ Matchroom
