THE NEW WAVE
Buglioni tops a bill packed with London talent, writes George Gigney
Greenwich. Sky Sports air in the UK.
Impressively, this will only be the Enfield man’s third fight at lightheavyweight, having fought most of his career at super-middle. A punishing stoppage loss to upset expert Sergey Khomitsky in 2014 set the ‘Wise Guy’ back – though did not quell his vociferous support – however he rebounded with decent wins over Andrew Robinson and Ivan Jukic. A draw with Lee Markham – in a fantastic fight – drew criticism from some and suggested the 28-year-old had found his level.
In 2015 he was then thrown in with WBA champion Fedor Chudinov and after a gutsy showing was outpointed over the 12-round distance. It was after this he decided to move up in weight and following a routine win was matched with reigning British champion Hosea Burton in December.
For many rounds it looked as though Frank’s previous flaws – a lack of head movement, fairly slow feet – were letting him down, but then his unaccountable
courage and conditioning took over. He landed right hands over the top, he started bossing the action and Burton was in dire straits. Buglioni then produced an emphatic stoppage in the 12th after flooring Burton, proving his doubters wrong and validating his move up in weight.
Tipton’s Summers hasn’t been as active as he would have liked – he fought only twice last year – but has impressed in the West Midlands. He was supposed to challenge Frank on the David Haye-tony Bellew card in March but their fight was postponed after Buglioni suffered a cut in sparring.
Summers is a patient, competent boxer though he does like to take his time. With a stellar amateur career behind him, Buglioni can be smart in the ring and he likes to keep up a demanding pace. At light-heavy, he clearly carries clubbing power and it looks as though he will eventually overwhelm Summers and stop him in the later rounds.
The undercard is being used as an opportunity to showcase the younger talent on Matchroom’s stable, starting with the highly anticipated debut of Olympic bronze medallist Joshua
Buatsi. The Londoner impressed in Rio with eye-catching stoppages and there is a serious buzz around the 24-year-old. He is being handled by Anthony Joshua’s management team and Buatsi carries himself with a similar maturity to the Watford giant. His opponent is yet to be confirmed, but promoter Eddie Hearn wants to move the light-heavyweight smartly, and it goes without saying that he is one to watch.
Though there are no marquee names on this show – which was originally pencilled in for IBF super-middleweight champion James Degale – Hearn stresses that giving young fighters this exposure is essential.
“You get people who criticise everything and say ‘There’s not a lot of names on the card,’ but this is the future,” he told Boxing News.
“A lot of those guys, the bigger names, are in the twilight period of their career – I don’t want to say the final stages of their career. It’s not just our guys; Billy Joe Saunders, Andy Lee and then Scott Quigg, [Anthony] Crolla, [Kell] Brook, they’re in the last three, four, five fights of their career really, so where is the future? The future is here, these guys, and I’m not just talking about Matchroom fighters, it might be [Daniel] Dubois or [Anthony] Yarde. These guys are being pushed by other people, so we should be doing the same.”
Promising superwelterweight Ted Cheeseman, who fights out of Tony Sims’ gym in Essex, vies for his first professional title on the show when he takes on English champion Matthew Ryan over 10 rounds.
An excellent amateur, Cheeseman has made a smooth transition to the pro game, notching several solid stoppage wins on big shows. He is coming off victories over Lloyd Ellett (an impressive second-round win) and Jack Sellars, who he beat on points. Middleton’s Ryan, who won the title by defeating Sonny Upton in March, is another step up for Cheeseman. Exciting featherweight prospect Reece Bellotti fights his first 12-rounder against Jamie Speight for a WBC ranking, though the Londoner is eyeing a British title shot in the near future. Rising cruiserweights
Isaac Chamberlain
and Olympian
Lawrence Okolie
feature on the show in separate bouts. The pair will be compared and contrasted as a London rivalry builds toward a potential fight down the line. Welterweight Conor Benn
returns from a lengthy spell on the sidelines due to injury, while Craig Richards and Jake Ball also feature.
THE VERDICT A great chance to see some future stars of British boxing.