Featherweight Owen Cooper
Featherweight Constantin Ursu
Under The Lights
THE VACANT BRITISH welterweight championship will be on the line alongside the Commonwealth strap when Owen Cooper goes up against Constantin Ursu in ‘Under the Lights’ at Valliant Live, Derby on Saturday February 28, live on DAZN.
The ‘Under the Lights’ card will also feature 10-round action at super lightweight, with Olympian Luke McCormack taking on Kane Gardner, plus at middleweight, with Ben Fail facing Mason Cartwright.
The prize attached to the headline fight also includes the Commonwealth title won by Ursu (14-0, 6 KOs) when he scored a knockout victory over Eithan James in March of last year. The 25-year-old Moldovan, who resides in Plymouth, has since made a successful defence and won the WBO European title with victory over Ryan Amos in November.
Worcester’s Cooper (11-1, 4 KOs) impressively returned to the win column with victory over Chris Kongo last May in Nottingham, having lost out in a thrilling WBO European title against Ekow Essuman in 2024. He won the WBO belt, along with the English title, with his success over Eithan James earlier in the year.
McCormack (4-0, 3 KOs), from Sunderland, is taking a significant step up in class by going in with Gardner in just his fifth professional fight, with having previously only taken part in one eight round fight.
Gardner (18-5, 7 KOs) is a known tough customer who in 2023 went the distance with Pierce O’Leary in a WBC International title fight and only lost out by a round in a late 2024 Central Area title encounter with Reece MacMillan, a decision that cost him a multi-title fight against Jack Rafferty.
Northampton man Fail (10-0, 5 KOs) will also have his credentials severely tested against Cartwright (23-4, 9 KOs), a two-time British title challenger from Ellesmere Port. Cartwright’s challenges for the Lonsdale belt came against Troy Williamson and Samuel Antwi and the only losses on his record have come in title contention.
Cartwright, known as ‘Nutty’, is currently enjoying a four-fight winning streak.
“This is a cracking little show and a showcase for our up-and-coming talents,” said promoter Frank Warren. “This is where prospects get to prove themselves as potential contenders and show us all that they belong on the major events moving forward.
“The British title fight between Owen Cooper and Constantin Ursu should be a real banger and it is one I am looking forward to greatly because these fights nearly always deliver the goods and Owen’s fights always do anyway.
“We expect big things from Luke McCormack and Ben Fail and they will both be tested in a big way on February 28.”
A full Championship Undercard full of up-and-coming Queensberry stars will be announced in the coming weeks.
-
WINS
11
-
LOSES
1
-
DRAW
0
-
KOs
4
Owencooper
Fighter ProfileThe Warrior from Worcester, Owen Cooper, is on a charge to become British welterweight champion on February 28 when he will take his noisy army of thousands north to Derby for his mighty collision with Constantin Ursu at the Valliant Live Arena.
The 25-year-old, who currently holds a record of 11-1 (4 KOs), turned professional in 2019 and made his debut at the Town Hall in Walsall.
In just his seventh fight, having caught the eye of Frank Warren and signing for Queensberry in early 2021, Cooper was in title action on the undercard of Liam Davies-Ionut Baluta at the Telford International Centre.
Cooper outpointed, by a landslide margin, the champion Jamie Stewart to win the Midlands Area title.
Two fights later, Cooper was stepped up into a clash of the unbeaten talents against his former England amateur teammate Eithan James in Birmingham and an absorbing encounter was settled in his favour when he stopped the WBO European champion in the ninth round by was of retirement.
A more significant step up came in his next fight when he took on the long-standing British champion Ekow Essuman, who was on the bounce back after losing his belt to Harry Scarff.
Cooper’s WBO belt was on the line and a barnstorming fight caught fire when Cooper was floored in the sixth before responding with a brutal knockdown of his own in the ninth, where Essuman looked out for the count. Somehow the Nottingham man regrouped between rounds and, when Cooper was too eager to finish the job, he got caught again himself and the fight was ultimately stopped in the final round.
Understandably, this was listed as a ‘fight of the year’ contender.
Cooper showed no desire to take any backward steps and his next mission was against the vastly experienced Chris Kongo and another epic played out at the Nottingham Arena last May.
It was a close-run thing with Kongo storming ahead, but Cooper showed his resolve and staying power to dominate the second half of the fight and win by two points on the scorecard.
Now a fully deserved shot at British welterweight honours awaits.
Constantin Ursu
The Moldovan-born Constantin Ursu is rapidly becoming a feared force of the welterweight division, having emerged from the boxing shadows to become Commonwealth and WBO European champion in 2025.
The 25-year-old, who bases himself in Plymouth, is something of a southpaw assassin and has accumulated a record of 14-0, with six of his wins coming via KO.
A title breakthrough came in 2023 when, in his home city, he became Southern Area champion with a third round stoppage of Matthew King at the Guildhall in Plymouth.
His show then switched and went on the road to the Brentwood Centre, where he scored notable wins over Jordan Dujon and Lewis Booth as he positioned himself for a shot at the vacant Commonwealth title against the also unbeaten former amateur starlet Eithan James.
York Hall staged the fight and it was Ursu who established control and ultimately flattened James in the seventh round with a brutal left hook.
Ursu continued his momentum back at York Hall in November when he scored a unanimous decision victory over Ryan Amos by close to a shutout margin.
Now a shot at the treasured Lonsdale belt in closing in against Worcester man Owen Cooper on February 28.
-
WINS
14
-
LOSES
0
-
DRAW
0
-
KOs
6
Plus Full Undercard Featuring
Middleweight
10(5)-0-0
Mason Cartwright23(9)-4-1
Super-Lightweight
4(3)-0-0
Kane Gardner18(7)-5-0
OUR PARTNERS
OUR PARTNERS