Heavyweight contender Hughie Fury returns to the world title trail, Savannah Marshall lays her WBO middleweight championship on the line and hometown hero Lewis Ritson looks to put on a show for his city when BOXXER visits the Utilita Arena Newcastle on Saturday, October 16.
The trio top a card stacked with standout British talent which will air live and exclusively on Sky Sports. Tickets are on sale now via www.boxxer.com/tickets and Ticketmaster.
Fury (25-3, 14 KO’s) faces the heavy-handed Christian Hammer (26-7, 16 KO’s) and will be keenly aware that Hammer’s last visit to the UK saw him maul former British and Commonwealth champion David Price before stopping him in the seventh round.
Coming off a dominant but blood-soaked unanimous decision win over Mariusz Wach in December, former British Heavyweight Champion Fury is looking for another comprehensive victory to cement his position as a global top-ten heavyweight and return his name to the world title conversation.
Having won the WBO Middleweight Championship by way of a seventh-round stoppage of Hannah Rankin, then retained it with a third-round stoppage of Maria Lindberg earlier this year, Fury’s stablemate Marshall (10-0, 8 KO’s) will be looking for another highlight-reel win when she faces unbeaten Zambian contender Lolita ‘The Black Diamond’ Muzeya (16-0, 8 KO’s).
A successful defence in Newcastle could also open the door to a long-awaited rematch with Claressa ‘T-Rex’ Shields (11-0, 2 KO’s).
The two have a long-standing rivalry which stems from Marshall being the only fighter in the world to have beaten Shields in the ring. Shields suffered the defeat in 2012 – the same year she won her Olympic gold medal – and left the amateur ranks with a 77-1 record.
A rematch between the two – now world champions and undefeated as professionals – would be a global event and one of the biggest fights in the history of women’s boxing. Words have flown back and forth between them for several years. If Marshall makes a successful defence on October 16, that rematch takes a step closer to fruition.
No less intense is the energy Newcastle’s favourite fighting son Lewis Ritson (21-2, 12 KO’s) will be bringing to the ring on fight night.
Having narrowly missed out on becoming mandatory challenger to undisputed world lightweight Josh Taylor in his last outing, the former British Lightweight Champion begins his road back to world title contention in his home city, where his thousands of fans in attendance will send up the famous ‘Ritson Roar’ as their man makes his way to the ring.
The North East region is a hotbed of British boxing talent and a quartet of the region’s top prospects will be making their presence felt on October 16th.
Former England boxer Steve ‘USSR’ Robinson (3-0, 2 KOs) has carried his excellent amateur pedigree into a successful start as a professional. A regular sparring partner of Hughie Fury, he was also a sparring partner for Anthony Joshua earlier this year as the London man began preparing for the since-cancelled fight with Tyson Fury.
Middlesbrough cruiserweight Michael Webster (4-0, 2 KO’s) was unbeaten as an amateur and represented Team GB before moving into the professional ranks, where he has continued to impress. With back to back first-round finishes in his last two fights, he’s looking for another destructive win in Newcastle to move him further up the British heavyweight ranks.
April Hunter (4-0) once played professional football for Newcastle United but found the lure of the boxing ring stronger. The 26-year old is a regular sparring partner of middleweight champion Savannah Marshall and takes another step in her own quest for gold on October 16.
Marshall also knows Durham super-welterweight Georgia O’Connor well. An outstanding amateur who narrowly missed out on a Team GB place for the recent Olympics, O’Connor was national amateur champion every year from 2015 through 2019 and has been sparring with Marshall in preparation for her professional debut on this card.
“Newcastle is without doubt one of the UK’s great sporting cities and we’re delighted to be bringing a monster card like this to ‘The Toon’ on October 16. We’ve secured the region’s best talent for this card and every fight is important,” said Ben Shalom, CEO, BOXXER.
