Lewis Crocker defends his WBO European welterweight title against Artem Haroyan on the Conlan Boxing show this Friday at Ulster Hall in Belfast.
ESPN+ televise in the USA, while the action can be seen on IFLTV’s YouTube channel.
Crocker (13-0, 7 KOs) is making steady progress as a professional, and the 24-year-old makes a second defence of his crown against Spain-based Armenian, Haroyan (17-2-1, 9 KOs).
The Belfast man has stepped up to ten round level in his last two bouts, first stopping Louis Greene in seven to win the vacant belt he currently holds in August last year, and he defended against Deniz Ilbay, dropping the German on the way to a comfortable points win in March.
Haroyan has never been past eight round level, has a knockout loss on his record, and shouldn’t pose ’The Croc’ too many problems.
Prediction: I favour Crocker to take a stoppage win around halfway.
McCrory meets Neves
Padraig McCrory defends his WBC International Silver super middleweight title for the first time against Portuguese visitor, Celso Neves.
McCrory (12-0, 6 KOs) won the title in his last fight, breaking Sergei Gorokhov’s nose on the way to a fifth round stoppage in August on an open air show at Falls Park in Belfast.
The ‘Hammer’ is on a decent run of three stoppage wins in his last four contests.
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Born in Portugal, but living in Switzerland, Neves (8-1-1, 2 KOs) fights on UK shores for the first time, having mainly campaigned in Switzerland through his professional career.
His sole loss came in an eight round points loss to Alexander Rigas in July 2019, and he has won three on the spin since, his last an eighth round stoppage of Marzio Franscella in May to win the Swiss super middleweight title.
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Prediction: McCrory should have too much for Neves here, although the visitor is durable. He should be able to record a wide enough scorecards success here.
McComb clashes with Clark
A cracking crossroads fight takes place at lightweight, where Sean McComb tackles Ronnie Clark over ten rounds.
‘Public Nuisance’ McComb (12-1, 5 KOs) lost his unbeaten record in February, when he was stopped in seven by Gavin Gwynne in a challenge for the vacant Commonwealth title, but he returned in August, taking all eight rounds against Vicente Martin Rodriguez.
Clark (21-5-2, 10 KOs) holds a 2018 win over Zelfa Barrett, but then took over three years out of the ring before returning in Kazakhstan in July, beaten widely on the cards against Sultan Zaurbek.
Prediction: McComb should be able to negotiate a points win in this one.
Remaining Undercard
At lightweight, Sean Gerard Duffy (4-0, 2 KOs) should be able to see off Ed Harrison (2-10) on the cards, and Dublin super welterweight, Paul Ryan (1-0) can take an early victory against Spain’s Damian Esquisabel (4-6).
James McGivern (3-0), Cain Lewis (1-0), Fearghus Quinn (3-0, 1 KO) and Daniel Keating (4-0, 3 KOs) are all in action on the card.
