Unbeaten Essex middleweight, Liam Desmond (5-0) received confirmation this week of his first professional title fight booked for December this year.
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Replacing the old Masters title
First, the 22-year-old participates in his second six-rounder on October 17th at Grays Civic Hall in Essex on a Carl Greaves Promotions show.
The young prospect said, “Got a title fight in December and I’m out again in October. That was always the plan, to get the rounds and experience in and then get a title before the end of the year.
“I’m not 100 per cent sure but I think it’s going to be for the new Challenger belt that has sort of replaced the old Masters titles.”
The British Boxing Board of Control banned the Masters titles earlier this year and replaced with the new British Challenger title.
Desmond raced to five fights undefeated by beating Liam Griffiths (3-37-1), Dee Mitchell (9-63-1), Kieran Gray (6-33-1) and Rob Brown (1-0) on points in his debut year as a professional.
The latest win over two-time Masters champion, Chris Jenkinson (8-20-2) proved that the Essex boxer is at a level ready to challenge for silverware.
Ever the professional with a wise head on such young shoulders, Desmond declared, “I’ll only be thinking about the October fight and I won’t be looking ahead to December at all, not until that first fight is over.”
He continued, “As an amateur, I’ve had loads of fights lined up that I knew of ahead of time so it’s something that I’m already used to. I’m back in the gym now and will probably be there most days.”
“There ain’t a lot of time to play with so it’ll be one week of rest after this fight and then straight back into a hard training camp.
“It’ll finish the year off perfectly for me. To be able to finish this year at 7-0 with a title in just my second year will be amazing.”
On the right path
The mid-October fight will be Desmond’s second six-rounder following his most recent win over the heavily experienced, Chris Jenkinson on June 20th at the same venue for all of his fights – Grays Civic Hall.
Trained by Kevin Lilley and managed by Carl Greaves, he commented, “I’m quite a slow starter so I’m be more suited to the longer distance. There’s nothing confirmed on opponents yet, I’ll hopefully get someone around the same sort of standard again.
“That last fight was good for me, it was a tough fight and I done well against him. I don’t want to jump up too quickly but it’s too short a career not to test yourself in hard fights.
It’s good for a confidence boost as well when you do well against an opponent that has already had success.”
Known to fans as ‘The Hammer’ from his amateur days boxing for West Ham ABC, the 6ft tall athlete from Corringham has settled into the paid ranks comfortably following a decade of amateur boxing, winning 46 of 59 fights and collecting a Haringey Box Cup gold and silver medal, as well as a Swedish Box Cup silver medal.
Growing reputation
He now claims to begin seeing the benefits of all of the hard work as his reputation starts to climb, “I think I’ve set my name out there now and I got a lot of good feedback recently so I’ve definitely got more support now which is great and hopefully it will continue to build.”
Teammates Darrel Church (2-1), Paul Hilz (1-1), Joe Jackson Brown (2-0) George Hennon (1-0) and Shaun Hussein (1-0-2) will all be appearing on the same bill.
The main event sees Southern Area champ, Adam Dingsdale (13-2-1) go up against Kevin Hooper (17-3) for the vacant English lightweight title.
Both boxers come into the fight following back-to-back wins and this will be Hooper’s third crack at the English title after losing out on the super-featherweight version twice back in 2013.
Two debutants complete the line-up in welterweight John Wheatley from Harwich, Essex and Nigerian light-welterweight, Idris Hill.
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