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Sergey Rabchenko has swapped the snow covered streets of Manchester for the glitz and glamour of Monte Carlo.
The undefeated European light-middleweight king flew out to Monaco yesterday ahead of his defence against tough Italian Adriano Nicchi this weekend.
And trainer Ricky Hatton believes the Belarusian sensation is set to light up the gambling hotspot with a career best performance.
“Sergey has been on fire in training and if he takes that into this fight then it’ll be something which really makes people sit up and take notice of his ability,” Hatton said.
“Every time he’s started a training camp he’s been a level higher than he was in his last one, but this time he’s really been something else.
“Sergey has been all over his sparring partners, giving them a horrible time and I think Nicchi is going to feel that same force in this fight.”
Rabchenko’s last fight saw him go the full 12 round distance with French southpaw Cedric Vitu. It proved to be a good learning fight, but the boxer himself was disappointed with his performance.
This time, however, Hatton believes his charge will be back on top form.
“Sergey wasn’t happy with how he boxed last time, but it shows the mark of a true champion when you can have an off-night and still beat top quality opponents at European level,” said ‘The Hitman’.
“He made mistakes in that fight but there were a number of reasons. Firstly, he had to train four weeks extra because the fight was supposed to be in France and it got put back. And then I couldn’t work his corner because it was on the same bill as my comeback.
“In Monte Carlo he’ll put all that behind him and I’m sure he’ll show people what the real Sergey Rabchenko can do.”
Sergey Rabchenko’s clash with Nicchi features on the same bill as Gennady Golovkin’s world middleweight title fight with Nobuhiro Ishida and the Million Dollar Super Four tournament featuring super-middleweight hopefuls Edwin Rodriquez, Zsolt Erdei, Denis Grachev and Ezequiel Osvaldo Madena.
