PREVIEW: GOLD ON SHOW AT THE COPPER BOX
This Saturday Charlie Edwards will defend his newly won WBC Flyweight Title live on Sky Sports at the Copper Box Arena as part of a stacked Matchroom Boxing bill.
Edwards (14-1) has claimed hes "a whole different animal" ahead of the showdown with Angel Moreno (19-2-2) and has aspirations to unify the division should he come through the Spanish based challenger.
It was an emotional night back in December when Edwards won the World Title against Cristofer Rosales as he dedicated the win to his brave mum Terry who is wheelchair-bound after a tough batlle with cancer. The sight of Edwards in tears presenting the title to his mum is something that really stood out to all boxing fans in 2018 and gave us all a warm smile.
Looking ahead to Saturday Edwards will be hoping to put on a show and seems to be getting better and better with each fight. The focus displayed in beating Rosales was impressive as he showed he can stick to a game plan for twelve rounds and more importantly has also shown hes learned alot since the John Riel Casimero defeat back in 2016. Should he come through as expected on Saturday the division looks wide open for Edwards and he will be looking to secure bouts against other champions in the division like Moruti Mthalane, Kosei Tanaka and Artem Dalakian.
(Charlie Edward (R) with his mother (C))
As part of the card, highly thought of world prospect Joshua Buatsi (9-0) challenges Liam Conroy (16-3-1) for the vacant British Light-Heavyweight Title. A very interesting battle as Conroy will present a new challenge for Buatsi to overcome in his career as this is Buatsi's first domestic showdown as a professional and Conroy is clearly not here to make up the numbers.
He comes into the contest full of confidence after a eye opening display against Miles Shinkwin, stopping Shinkwin in two rounds to retain his English title. Buatsi though will be hoping to show why so many believe hes going all the way, coming into the bout after three back-to-back first round stoppages on his quest to dominating the Light-Heavyweight division
One of the co-features on the card is the grudge match between Lawrence Okolie (11-0) and Wadi Camacho (21-7) for the British and Commonwealth Cruiserweight titles. Both men clearly have no time for each other as was evidenced after Okolies victory against Tamas Lodi when Camacho was invited to the ring to announce the bout but both had to be seperated from getting it on there and then.
Camacho who has done things the hard way in his career, has to be applauded after avenging defeat to Arfan Iqbal in his last fight picking up the vacant Commonwealth strap and is an example of hard work paying off in the toughest of sports.
Okolie on the other hand will be looking to push towards a world title shot. Although his career has been short as far he has some impressive names on his reseme such as Isaac Chamberlain, Luke Watkins and Matty Askin. This one possibly steals the show on Saturday.
Also on the card is the Super-Lightweight debut of former British Lightweight Champion Lewis Ritson (17-1) as he takes on tough Argentinian German Argentino Benitez (21-3). Ritson will be looking to bounce back from his European Title defeat to Francesco Patera in his last outing. The best of the of the rest sees an outing for Irish Middleweight Jason Quigley (15-0) as he takes on Mathais Eklund (10-1-2). Newport Bantamweight Sean McGoldrick (7-0) takes on Sean Cairns (3-1) and a debut appearance for the exciting Shannon Courtenay who will be looking to get her boxing career off to flyer and advertise herself in a big way to the British boxing public. Finally Lewis Syrett (5-0) and Tom Ansell (6-0) finish off the card as both progress their careers in learning bouts. A night of boxing for fans to look forward to on Saturday.
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