Friday’s IBF, WBC, and WBO super-bantamweight title fight between Naoya Inoue and Ye Joon Kim marks the start of a cracking weekend of boxing.
Inoue is unlikely to give up his titles in Tokyo and the Monster, who will contest his 24th world title bout, is strongly fancied in the betting.
Kim is ranked number 11 by the WBO, but the Troublemaker will have to take a huge step up to get the better of one of the best fighters on the planet.
CONAH WALKER TO BEAT HARRY SCARFF
In-Form Walker Can Continue Progress
Saturday night sets up a Matchroom card from Nottingham with three interesting contests.
Ellie Scotney defends her IBF and WBO super-bantamweight titles against Mea Motu, while Dalton Smith, who has hopes of a world title shot in the near future, will battle Walid Ouizza for the vacant EBU European super-lightweight strap.
In terms of competitiveness, the best fight of the weekend is the battle for the British and Commonwealth welterweight belts between Harry Scarff and Conah Walker.
Scarff is the champion and the Derby fighter impressed when getting the better of Ekow Essuman to win those belts.
However, the 31-year-old has since been beaten by Karen Chukhadzhian, who went on to challenge for a world title last year, and there is a clear ceiling to Horrible’s ability.
Chukhadzhian was comprehensively outpointed byJaron Ennis for the second time in November and, while Ennis is an excellent and unbeaten champion, the Ukrainian is only a borderline world-level fighter and it may be a little too simple to attribute Scarff’s defeat to Chukhadzhian providing a step up in class.
It’s a little more difficult to weigh up Walker’s level. The Wolverhampton boxer had been struggling to make an impact on the domestic scene, but the 29-year-old produced a career-best performance in defeat to the highly-rated Lewis Crocker last year.
Walker missed out on the decision against Crocker, but that was a pretty harsh reflection on the flow of the fight and it marked a breakout performance from the Wolverhampton man.
The Croc has previously looked good in wins over Tyrone McKenna and Jose Felix and the 28-year-old is the favourite to beat the slick Paddy Donovan when they pair meet in March.
The 31-year-old backed up that effort against Crocker to dominate the once impressive Lewis Ritson last time out and, even if the Sandman has passed his peak, that still rates as a strong effort.
That all looks pretty good intertwining form and there could well be more to come from Walker.
The Wolverhampton fighter is the slight underdog in Nottingham on Saturday night, but the 31-year-old looks like a bet to walk away with the British and Commonwealth titles.
CONAH WALKER TO BEAT HARRY SCARFF
