Jackson fired up for home title defence

AUSTRALIAN featherweight champion Luke Jackson hopes his first professional fight on home soil will see supporters, family and friends pack out City Hall as he defends his title.

The former Olympic boxing captain yesterday announced a rare fight in his home town, with City Hall to host a 13-fight card on August 1.

Jackson, who won his eighth straight and most important professional bout with a split points decision against Will Young to claim the national featherweight crown in March, will probably face former world title contender Nouldy Manakane.

The 31-year-old Indonesian, who has a 29-17 record, lost his most recent fight to Thailand’s Pungluang Sor Singyu for the WBO Asia Pacific bantamweight title last month.

“Since I won the title back in March I made it very clear I wanted to defend it in Tasmania,” Jackson said.

“I’ve had over 130 amateur fights and eight professional fights and I think I’ve fought down here no more than 10 times my whole career.

“I wanted a solid opponent, someone who is going to push me and give the Tasmanian crowd a good fight.

“At the end of the day I fight for Tasmania before I fight for Australia.

“This is my first professional fight down here and my first fight down here in many, many years.

“It looks like we will be fighting Nouldy Manakane from Indonesia. It’s 90 per cent [locked in], just waiting for conformation from his team.

“This is what I want to bring to Tasmania. It is the type of challenge I need.”

It will be the first professional fight in Tasmania since Daniel Geale defended his IBF World middleweight title for the second time against Osumanu Adama at the Derwent Entertainment Centre in March 2012.

The night will also see the professional debuts of two other Tasmanians, with Jacob Daureen and Johnny Brown to face interstate opponents.

Jackson will head to Sydney in the next fortnight to begin a month-long training block with Billy Hussein, before returning to Hobart to round out his preparations.

“I train every day. As of last week I stepped it right up,”