EAT YOUR HEART OUT, WBSS
MBSS is here, writes Matt Bozeat
BLACK COUNTRY BOXING chief Errol Johnson has come up with a great idea to create interest in small hall boxing. Or rather, the Sauerlands came up with a great idea – and Johnson pinched it.
The Midlands Boxing Super Series, a distant relation of the World Boxing Super Series, gets underway at Walsall F.C’S Banks’ Stadium Suite on February 10, with four quarter-finals over six rounds. It reaches its climax later this year with a fight for the Midlands Area super-featherweight championship, vacated by Lyon Woodstock Jnr.
The favourite to win the MBSS is Indi Sangha, a flashy 22-year-old with a 7-0 record from the Eastside gym in Birmingham.
Sangha started his pro career with Clifton Mitchell in Derby before relocating, and gives Mitchell credit for developing him. “Clifton knows my style,” said Sangha, who only had a handful of amateur bouts before turning over three years ago. “The style is like the Ingle style, but it’s different. Nobody else in Britain at the moment has a style like mine. I’m different. Different is good. I take bits from all the great fighters, but I like to use Naz’s [Naseem Hamed’s] style. The same shots that worked for Naz work for me too. I’ve got all the shots he had. I’m very confident. I train really hard, I’m improving all the time and I really want this.”
Sangha holds a points win over Birmingham southpaw Paul Holt, a former Midlands champion who’s also entered in the MBSS.
Sangha said: “Once the TV promoters see me, I will get pushed on. I need to get on TV because when people see me, they remember me. I put on a show.”
Sangha has been drawn against Tamworth’s Louis Fielding (7-4), and in his quarter final, Holt (6-6) meets Kane Baker (5-2).
There’s also a rematch between Josh Baillie (5-4) and Manny Zaber (10-1) – Baillie won via retirement – and Luke Jones (4-11) faces Jack Summers (3-2).