Hitting the Homestretch in Brum

THE GRAND HOTEL in Birmingham will on Tuesday play host to the opening media activity to signpost the Queensberry return to the Second City on Saturday September 26 when a pair of ferocious featherweights will go into battle.

‘Homestretch’ will take place at the BP Pulse Live, a magnificent and fitting stage for Liam Davies and Nathaniel Collins to have their very own England vs Scotland confrontation.

Telford Tiger Davies is fast becoming a featherweight force to be reckoned with, having already scooped up the European and WBO Intercontinental titles since making the jump from super bantamweight. His run at 122lbs was not short on bling either, with the now 30-year-old winning a bounty of becoming IBO world champion, along with winning the European, British, WBC and WBO International titles.

Glasgow star Collins will be bidding to put himself right back in the picture after suffering the disappointment of a first career defeat to Cristobal Lorente last time out in April. The pair were rematching a drawn encounter from October 2025 and the fights doubled as a final eliminator for the WBC world title.

Before his loss to European champ Lorente, ‘The Nightmare’  was a proud British, Commonwealth and WBC Silver champion.

The arena will once again be echoing to the Stoke strains of Delilah when Nathan Heaney’s travelling army rock in the aisles for his final ring entrance against his last opponent Gerome Warburton.

The Welshman got the better of Hitman Heaney back in March, but the 37-year-old is determined to go out with a bang and have a last hurrah in front of the Stoke faithful, who have followed him in such huge numbers across his career.

Heaney, the Pied Piper of the Potteries, represents the best of British boxing. A true gent with an army of fans, a rousing ring entrance and an absolute love for the sport. Few boxing fans will ever forget his emotion when he became British middleweight champion with a near punch perfect performance against now world champion Denzel Bentley in late 2023.

There is also a British title double helping on September 26, with Sunderland’s Olympian Luke McCormack fighting for the super lightweight title against Luton’s Kay Prospere, plus Morecambe starlet Nelson Birchall taking on Queensberry new boy Gully Powar for the featherweight belt.