Danny Dignum faces his toughest task in the professional ranks as he defends his WBO European Middleweight title against Alfredo Meli at the Brentwood Centre on Saturday.
Dignum, whose last 11 fights have all been in East London, won the title last time out after a convincing 5th round stoppage win over Conrad Cummings.
Belfast’s Meli also has history with Cummings, going to a split-decision draw back in 2015 in a bout many believed he won. Promoter Lee Eaton revealed to Rising East how this bout came into fruition.
Too Much Too Soon For Dignum?
“When we did the deal for Dignum to fight Cummings it was in that deal for the winner to fight Meli. If I could have chosen a different opponent I would have, because it’s a hard night’s work.”
He was also keen to talk up the abilities of Alfredo Meli;
“Alfredo is a fantastic fighter, unbelievable,hes an absolute machine, he had a good win last time out against a highly rated German (Araik Marutjan) and he came through that, he got put on the canvas and came through it and won the fight.
“It’s going to be a great night and a great fight and the winner will move on to bigger things.”
Southern Area Stand-Off
Elsewhere on the card, Sam Gilley and Curtis Felix Jr will clash for the vacant Southern Area Welterweight Title.
It’s the biggest step up in competition in Gilley’s young career and promises to be a cracker as Felix Jr looks to put his defeat to Ekow Essuman last time out firmly in the past.
Shaquille Day, a former holder of the aforementioned Southern Area strap is also on the card, as he takes on Kaisee Benjamin.
https://twitter.com/MTKGlobal/status/1235582163816415232
‘The Black Mexican’ has had an unbeaten start to his career that started back in 2015 and a win over Benjamin on Saturday is likely to propel him into bigger and better things towards the back end of 2019.
Show Stealer
Finally, in what is arguably the most intriguing fight of the night, James Hawley and Josh Adewale will put their young, undefeated records on the line.
It’s unusual for two undefeated prospects to square off so early in their careers, which makes this even more intriguing, and Lee Eaton was very excited to have made the fight.
“MTK wants proper 50/50 fights, but in this instance it’s the boys that wanted this. They didn’t want to fight another journeyman, so I said fight each other and they went ‘sweet’! So it’s done. The winner will move on and the loser will obviously come back so its big props to the both of them for taking the fight so early.
“I couldn’t pick a winner, I look after both of them so i’m going to sit on the fence as I don’t really know who wins but they’re both going to be looked after and they’ll both be back on big shows in the future so good luck to them.”
