Boxing On Tnt Begins With A Bang

By Frank Warren

THE BOXING DEPARTMENT of the newly-launched TNT Sports swings into action on Saturday with something of a bang in perhaps the unlikely setting of Shropshire, where the Telford International Centre will get a big night underway.

Once events have concluded in Telford, boxing fans will be eager to push the button and flick over to Las Vegas, where the T-Mobile Arena will stage the much-craved for superfight between Terence Crawford and Errol Spence on TNT Sports Box Office. A true welterweight king will be crowned.

We are serving up a tasty little starter ahead of the sumptuous main course at the International Centre, with a couple of fights that should certainly whet the appetite.

Super bantamweights Liam Davies and Jason Cunningham will go into battle for four belts in the main event and settle a festering grudge that has developed in recent months.

The progress made by Liam in such a short space of time has been remarkable. He came to us as English champion and, in five fights, he has added WBC International Silver, the British, European and WBC International titles to his collection.

To win five championship belts in just 13 fights as a professional is really some going and on Saturday he will be bidding to add another in the form of Jason’s WBO International title.

The 27-year-old’s star is on the rise and you have to admire his willingness to take on the tough fights. He fought for the British against Marc Leach after the Salford man had impressively overcome Chris Bourke, then he jumped in with Ionut Baluta for European honours after the now WBC International champion had defeated Brad Foster.

Liam holds no fears over taking risks to further his own prospects and he has got another big job on his hands this time against Jason, who has been there and pretty much done it all.

I am a big fan of Jason as both a person and a fighter. He is a proper professional who has never had it easy and I am thrilled that we have been able to become involved in the later stages of his career.

He didn’t lose the British or European titles in the ring and, he too, showed his fearless side by accepting the Zolani Tete fight in order to test his credentials at world level.

It didn’t end well for him on any level, but we were always going to bring him back and he showed he has lost nothing in his last fight, which set up this weekend’s big encounter.

I am not quite sure what to expect from this one and that is the way it should be. I suspect it could be tactical warfare early on before warming up into something special.

The chief support should also be a cracker. Young Eithan James, just 22, is throwing caution to the wind by fighting a highly-motivated James Moorcroft for the WBO European welterweight title.

Eithan is a quality prospect and he has shown he possesses all the skills across his opening 11 fights. He also showed that he has got the minerals when he climbed off the canvas a couple of fights ago to box his way to a decision win.

Against James, who firmly believes Eithan is jumping the levels too soon, he is up against a bigger man who has come down from middleweight and has Anthony Crolla, the former world champion, in his corner.

James views this as his big moment and has been given the time to prepare properly with good notice. This is a key ingredient towards delivering a top fight and it is one I am very much looking forward to.

Also, as always, do not miss out on seeing our future heavyweight star Moses Itauma perform in his fourth fight as a pro. Still just 18, Moses will fight Kevin Nicolas Espindola, who has an even record of 7-7, with just the one stoppage against him.

Moses was left a bit frustrated after his first two fights, which lasted less than a minute combined, but his last one afforded him a full 18 minutes of valuable ring time when he faced the cunning campaigner Kostiantyn Dovbyschenko when a hand injury reduced his venom.

Dovbyschenko is nobody’s pushover, as demonstrated by his recruitment to face another touted young heavy in Matty Harris last week. Harris, I believe, came into the fight off the back of four straight 1st round stoppages and, stopping Dovbyschenko when Itauma couldn’t, was no doubt scripted as some sort of statement of future intent.

As it turned out, Dovbyschenko proved he is no cannon fodder and stopped Harris in the fifth round.

The stoppage on the record of Espindola came in January, but the retirement was due to an injured right hand rather than being overwhelmed. He was up against Olympic bronze medallist Frazer Clarke, the hugely experienced 31-year-old with knocking on 100 amateur fights under his belt.

Clarke was in his fifth pro fight against Espindola, so it will be fascinating to witness the teenage Itauma set about the Argentinean.

As for events in Vegas, my pick is Crawford, who I have always been a big fan of from the time when he used to feature regularly on BoxNation and you could see early on what a genuine talent he is.