Heff high hopes
MARK Heffron will hope his new relationship with Ricky Hatton gets off to a successful start when he returns to the ring this weekend.
Heffron will now be trained by the Hitman for the foreseeable future, with their first fight together coming on Saturday when Heffron faces Bartlomiej Grafka at Victoria Warehouse.
Hatton has gone from strength to strength in his career as a trainer ever since hanging up his gloves, and he earned his first world champion earlier this year when Zhanat Zhakiyanov won the WBA bantamweight title.
Heffron isn’t the only super-middleweight contender to recently team up with Hatton, as English champion Darryll Williams has also made the switch, and Hatton now hopes more major honour will soon be on the horizon after the duo joined his ranks.
“I’m over the moon that two of the best super-middleweights have chosen to join my gym and I think it says a lot about the work myself, Mike Jackson and Blain Younis have been doing with our lads over the past couple of years,” Hatton said.
“Darryl Williams is a really exciting boxer and his first fight with Jahmaine Smyle is probably the British fight of the year so far.
“Everyone knows how much I liked a tear up during my career, but I’ll be aiming to add a few more subtleties to his game.
“As for Mark, what more do you need to say about him than ‘pure power.’ He’s had a bit of a stop-start career, but he’s really on it now and anyone who can put away 13 of 15 opponents has to set pulses racing.
“I also train Jake Haigh and Chris Blaney so the gym is brimming with talent at middleweight and super-middleweight and I think the sparring sessions alone are going to be something else.”
Heffron has an unbeaten record of 15-0, with 13 of those wins coming by stoppage, including a second round knockout win against Achilles Szabo in April.
His fight this weekend is part of a packed bill that also features Joe Murray attempting to continue his good run of recent form when he faces experienced Henry James.
Other fights on the bill sees rising prospect Jordan Thompson take on Russ Henshaw, Macaulay McGowan fight Zaurs Sadihovs and Charlie Schofield face Curtis Gargano.
Tickets can be purchased direct from the boxers themselves or from vipboxing.tv.