Now for the biggy and what a fight this is. England's adopted Russian/Armenian David Avanesyan taking on 2016 Olympian Josh Kelly for the EBU European Welterweight crown.
This is a fight that boxing fans have been waiting for for years, literally.
Originally scheduled for December 8th 2018, Kelly pulled out on the morning of the fight due to illness and since then the fight has been rescheduled twice but due to a variety of things, it's yet to go ahead. However, this weekend we are finally getting to see the pair go at it.
Former world title challenger Avanesyan is in arguably the form of his life after picking up a hat-trick of stoppage victories including back to back showreel knockouts of the originally unbeaten Spaniard Kerman Lejarraga back in 2019. Unlike Kelly though, he does have losses on his record with one of them came early in his career and the other two coming at elite world level, a level in which Kelly is yet to really fight at.
After defeat in the last 16 of the 2016 Olympic Games to the now unbeaten professional Daniyar Yeleussinov, Kelly took the plunge in to the paid ranks by turning professional and he made some impression winning his first nine fights, six by stoppage. He did however then come unstuck in a less than convincing performance against Ray Robinson on the Anthony Joshua Andy Ruiz undercard where he was lucky to get a draw but he then bounced back with a classy points defeat of the experienced Wiston Campos at the end of 2019.
On paper, this is a case of the brawler against the boxer. Avanesyan has rediscovered himself since his stoppage loss to Egidijus Kavaliauskas and Kelly is somewhat on the comeback trail since his disappointing draw to Robinson.
So how do we see this fight going? Many people have written Kelly off since that draw however we believe Avanesyan's style could quite possibly suit him much better than Kelly's style suits Avanesyan. The Russian's chopping right hook is deadly along with his solid high guard, however when he does let his hands go, he seems to admire his work a little too much which leaves opportunities for him to be countered.
Kelly has shown already that his two of his finest traits are his hand speed and lateral movement and if he can cut out the showboating inside the range of Avanesyan, then he could well win this fight with his superior boxing skill and potentially get a late stoppage. However, you cannot write off Avanesyan till the final bell. He's the more experienced out of the pair but if Kelly can find a home for his jab and make the Russian over commit, he could well make a bit of a statement here.
Prediction: Josh Kelly to win by unanimous decision