Return Of The Magnificent 7 Looms Large

By Frank Warren

FOLLOWING ON FROM our heavyweight Rumble in Riyadh, our attention switches to an equally bumper event set for Manchester on Saturday as we look forward to the Return of the Magnificent 7 at the AO Arena.

As it says on the tin, so to speak, the main selling point of this card is that it features seven big title fights on the one night, live on TNT Sports. The return reference is to a similar type of show we put on back in September 2010 in Birmingham, but I would say this one is even stronger.

Here at Queensberry we are committed to delivering shows from the prospects learning their trade right through to the world title stage and this is one, for the most part, where our strong contender-level fighters really get the chance to sparkle on a huge platform and make a big name for themselves.

When I say for the most part, the exception is our new girl, Hannah Rankin, who I am delighted is fighting for the WBC world super welterweight title against Ema Kozin.

If I look back to the Birmingham show, we had Nathan Cleverly, Enzo Maccarinelli, Kell Brook and James DeGale on the card, who all went on to become world champions, plus Derek Chisora, Matthew Macklin and Frankie Gavin, who all fought for world titles.

It is similar this time around. I am extremely confident that Nick Ball, Liam Davies and Ekow Essuman will be fighting for world titles over the course of the next 12 months, while Denzel Bentley, if he gets past Nathan Heaney, will be pushing for another world title tilt following his impressive effort against Janibek Alimkhanuly late last year.

Nathaniel Collins is also very much looking the part at featherweight and it will be onwards and upwards for him if he deals with the threat of local lad Zak Miller in Manchester.

Unfortunately, injury has seen to it that we have lost the Anthony Cacace-Ryan Garner fight, but the good news is that we have been able to slot in a cracking little English heavyweight title fight between our new recruit, the champion Sol Dacres and our unbeaten challenger Michael Webster to maintain the status quo of seven title fights to feast on.

We are approaching an announcement-heavy period of time with some big reveals on the cards this week. So keep your eyes peeled because there is much to look forward to in the remainder of this year and early next!

I’D ALSO LIKE to draw your attention to a very special annual event we are staging at The Brewery in London on Friday.

It is our Debra Fight Night, a Black Tie Dinner Show to raise funds and awareness of epidermolysis bullosa (EB), an extremely painful genetic skin blistering condition, for which there is sadly no cure.

It is a cause we have been supporting for a number of years now and meeting young sufferers of the condition is incredibly moving, mostly because of the indomitable spirit and resilience they show on a day-to-day basis.

We received some very sad news recently. You may recall at the end of last year, when I lost a £10,000 bet with Tyson Fury over the making or not of an Anthony Joshua fight, Tyson presented his bounty to an inspirational young girl called Myra Ali, who suffered with EB.

Tragically, Myra has now passed away and I would like to send my condolences to all her family and friends at this sad time. Rest in peace, Myra.