SECOND HOME IN THE SECOND CITY

By Frank Warren

ON SATURDAY EVENING we are back, once again, at the old Birmingham NEC – now known as the BP Pulse Arena – for another bumper night of boxing, the culmination of undertaking significant groundwork in the region.

The Midlands, as a whole, is a prolific territory for the sport and was, for a period of time, a little bit overlooked when it came to hosting major promotions. We wanted to restore it to former glories but, as with everything worthwhile, it takes time and development.

We are now in the process of doing much the same in Liverpool and I feel certain that, with Nick Ball leading the way, the old Echo Arena (M&S Bank in new money) will be packed to the rafters and bouncing again before too long.

A key component in our Birmingham revival came a short hop up the motorway at the terrific little venue in Telford. With a capacity of just over a few thousand, the International Centre became something of a hub for us and provided a stage for the likes of Liam Davies, Nathan Heaney, Owen Cooper, Eithan James and others to grow a fanbase – or increase in the case of Nathan – and showcase themselves to a wider audience on TNT Sports.

They got their grounding, learned the ropes in tough development fights and were soon enough ready to graduate to the biggest arena in the region and take part in even-money fights with major titles at stake.

The NEC is perfect in so many ways. Located literally just off the motorway and with plenty of parking and a multitude of catering and entertainment options, fight fans can jump in the car, park up and watch a top night of boxing.

Take Chantelle Cameron, for instance, her fans from Northampton probably just have a half hour journey to watch her in action. The same goes for Eithan James. Liam Davies’ mass of followers have a similar journey from Telford, just from the other direction.

To be quite honest, even for those of us from down south, quite often you could reach Birmingham in the time it takes to navigate a way through London. And we won’t even talk about parking.

So it is important for us to have a strong geographical spread for our shows, but this one really works and thousands of Liam Davies fans will be making the short trip on Saturday to watch him make a first defence of his IBO world super bantamweight championship against his old amateur rival Shabaz Masoud from Stoke.

Liam’s accomplishments are nothing short of remarkable. He has been a Queensberry man for eight fights and, in the space of that time, he has collected the WBC International, British, European, WBO International and IBO world super bantamweight titles.

Not bad going, eh.

I really like and rate Liam and love the way he fights. He brings pure entertainment and I believe that now he is truly starting to get the recognition he deserves.

He is in a fantastic defence of his fellow unbeaten Brit Shabaz and I am expecting an absolute cracker. There is also the added ingredient of it being another Queensberry vs Matchroom collision. I think we are doing rather well so far and I fully expect Liam to add to our win tally, although I know he is up against a skilful and slick operator in Shabaz, who I am sure will bring a strong support from the Potteries. Maybe he can recruit some of Nathan’s merry band.

In world level action we also have Chantelle, who won the WBC Interim world super lightweight title last time out in Birmingham on her first appearance under the Queensberry banner.

I was mightily impressed with what I saw from Chantelle and it is obvious that she belongs at the very highest level, which is where we will take her back to. She is up against a former world champion in Patricia Berghult in a defence of her Interim belt, but I know how desperate she is to win back her undisputed status. As soon as the fight is there, we will get it for her, but she has got to get through this one first and make sure there are no slip-ups.

Another who excelled back in July was our star welterweight Ekow Essuman, who was in an absolute thriller against Owen Cooper. Ekow really showed what he is made of by recovering from a brutal knockdown to stop Owen in his tracks right at the beginning of the final round. Ekow defends his WBO European title against another unbeaten opponent in Ben Vaughan.

Talking of welterweights, our young star Eithan James came up a little short when he took on Owen earlier this year, not really recovering after being clipped in the first round. He will learn from it and he gets the chance to put himself back on track in an English title eliminator against Jermaine Osbourne-Edwards, the unbeaten man from Wolverhampton.

Our Nottingham light heavyweight star in the making Ezra Taylor is also on parade in a defence of his WBC International title and he will be looking to demonstrate to the watching public why he is the man to watch at 175lbs. There are plenty of big fights out there to be made and Ezra is confident that he is the man to carry our light heavyweight flag.

We will also get the chance to officially welcome one of our new signings, heavyweight Lewis Williams who, at the same arena, won gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. He makes his professional debut and I feel certain that he will be a heavyweight force to be reckoned with in years to come.

MANY OF YOU will have noticed some news bulletins across our media channels in the last week or so revealing some new arrivals and renewals of promotional contracts.

Last week I was able to officially welcome young Huey Malone to Queensberry and I am now in position to do likewise to outstanding amateur stars Lewis Williams and Joe Tyers. Heavyweight Lewis and lightweight Joe come with a fantastic pedigree and appear destined to become major successes in the professionals.

I’d also like to welcome Lawrence Okolie to the team. The big man is now jumping up to the heavyweight ranks and I feel quite certain he will be an exciting addition and I am looking forward to seeing him take his first test at Wembley on December 7.

We also posted news on six Queensberry fighters signing new, long-term promotional deals with us. Nick Ball, Anto Cacace, Hamzah Sheeraz, Liam Davies, Moses Itauma and Sam Noakes have all extended and I am thrilled with the developments.

I would also like to reveal news of another top young fighter, who has been with us since day one, penning an extension to his partnership with us at Queensberry.

Our little Piranha, Ryan Garner, has also committed his future and he is a fighter I have been excited about and have got behind right from the beginning. It has taken a little while, but he is really gathering some momentum now and I was delighted to see him triumph in two tough championship fights against Liam Dillon and Archie Sharp this year.

I was hoping we could push him further with another fight this year but, unfortunately, he has sustained a minor injury so it is best not to take any risks with him now being in such a strong position to move forward towards world title contention.

However, he will be back at the beginning of March in a big fight, much closer to his Southampton home and hopefully it will signal the start of a massive 2025 for Ryan.