Sport

Paul Hyland ready to rumble at Europa Hotel fight night

James Fryers tops the bill on Saturday night when he takes on Maxi Hughes
James Fryers tops the bill on Saturday night when he takes on Maxi Hughes James Fryers tops the bill on Saturday night when he takes on Maxi Hughes

PAUL Hyland was involved in a series of barn-burners last year and the Belfast lightweight looks set for another on Saturday night when he takes on Poland’s Jacek Wylezol at the Europa Hotel.

Eastern European journeymen are routinely described as “tough”, “durable” and “dangerous” whether they come to fight or not, but Wylezol has earned all three tags over his 26-fight career.

He has travelled all over Europe and traded blows in decent company, notably taking Craig Evans and Stephen ‘Swifty’ Smith the distance and he fought Stephen Ormond in Dublin last year.

So another challenge lies ahead for Hyland (9-0) but he’s well used to that. The former Gleann ABC star’s last fight of 2015 was a cracker at the Waterfront Hall in November and Carl Frampton, watching from ringside, said the scrap should have been chief support, not the first fight of the night on the Meli-Cummings bill.

“Some of the names he (Wylezol) fought are pretty good so I’m expecting a tough enough fight,” he said.

“My gameplan is to box a bit more and then step in,” he added, but admitted: “My gameplan is always to box but when I get caught with a shot it sort of goes out the window.”

A win on Saturday night at the Europa would take Hyland to 10-0 and could see him break into the top 10 in the British rankings. He’d dearly love to follow fellow Belfast fighters James Fryers and James Tennyson – who also appear on the show – into the British title mix.

“I would love a British title,” he said.

“Scott Cardle’s the champion now and I’d love a crack at him. I’m confident and I believe I could beat him – I know he’s undefeated at the minute and he’s a good boxer but I do believe I could beat him.

“I’ve watched him and I’ve seen different weaknesses that I could work on.”

Hyland and Wylezol will be in the ring for around 9pm on Saturday night and the bill also features Tyrone McCullagh, Fergal McCrory and Joe Fitzpatrick who opens the shows against Ruslans Berdimuradovs.

Top of the bill is James Fryers versus Daniel ‘Maxi’ Hughes in an eliminator for the British Super-featherweight title.

“Fryers v Hughes is a real mouth-watering 50/50 contest,” said promoter Mark Dunlop.

“It’ll be a real tough 10-round battle with James pulling away in the later stages, come Saturday night he will move from prospect to contender.

“As usual, the show features some of the best local talent with the remainder of the card also former multiple All-Ireland amateur champions all in great fights.”

The chief support sees Tennyson (15-1) in a six-round contest against Antonio Horvatic (Croatia) in a warm-up for his looming British Featherweight title challenge.

2014 Commonwealth Games silver medallist Fitzpatrick (3-0) looks to be in a real shootout and he takes on Ruslans Burdimuradovs (8-5) who is fresh from winning a local Latvian Prizefighter competition.

Hot prospect McCrory should get a good workout against Hungarian Peter Mellar over 4x3 rounds at lightweight and Tyrone McCullagh (2-0) has his first fight on home soil as a professional against Antons Zacets (2-1) of Latvia at super-bantamweight.

Europa Hotel, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

Super-featherweight: James Fryers (11-0) v Maxi Hughes (14-2-2)

Featherweight: James Tennyson (15-1) v Antonio Horvatic (9-23)

Lightweight Paul Hyland Jnr (9-0) v Jacek Wylezol (14-12)

Lightweight Joe Fitzpatrick (3-0) v Ruslans Berdimuradovs (8-5)

Lightweight Feargal McCrory (1-0) v Peter Mellar (4-20-2)

Super Bantamweight Tyrone McCullagh (2-0) v Antons Zacests (2-1)

Doors open at 6.30pm for the VIP pre-fight dinner and general public 7pm. First fight 8pm.

Right hooks

UNBEATEN Gary Corcoran headlines at Dublin’s National Stadium on Saturday night when he takes on Danny Butler (25-5) for the WBO Inter-Continental super welterweight title.

London-born Corcoran (14-0) hasn’t fought outside the English capital before and the experienced Butler should be a good test for him.

Chief support is provided by the WBO European lightweight title rumble between Jamie Kavanagh (20-1-1) and Antonio Joao Bento (30-15-2).

Also on the Dublin card are Phil Sutcliffe jnr, Stephen Ormond, Declan Geraghty, Anthony Fitzgerald and Gary Sweeney makes his debut at cruiserweight.

National Stadium bill

WBO Inter-Continental super welterweight title: Gary Corcoran (14-0) v Danny Butler (25-5)

WBO European lightweight title: Jamie Kavanagh (20-1-1) v Antonio Joao Bento (30-15-2)

Super-lightweight: Philip Sutcliffe jnr (9-0) v Alexandre Lepelley (18-5-1)

Lightweight: Romeo Romaeo (9-0) v Michal Dufek (18-11-1)

Super-featherweight: Patrick Hyland (31-1) v Reynaldo Cajina (14-29-5)

Lightweight: Stephen Ormond (20-2) v Lukasz Janik (15-16-1)

Lightweight: Declan Geraghty (10-1) v Laszlo Fekete (13-10-2)

Middleweight: Anthony Fitzgerald (18-8) v Sam Wall (2-4)

Welterweight: Peter McDonagh (25-28-1) v TBC

Super-welterweight: Craig O’Brien (3-0) v TBC

Welterweight: Sean Creagh (3-0) v TBC

Cruiserweight: Gary Sweeney debut v Moses Matovu

LEO Santa Cruz says he wants to take on the winner of Carl Frampton versus Scott Quigg.

The Mexican said it has always been his plan to call out the winner of the massive February 27 rumble.

The former WBC super-bantamweight title holder defends his WBC featherweight title against former Frampton and Quigg foe Kiko Martinez on the same night on the same American telecast as Frampton versus Quigg.

“I will be calling out the winner of that fight if I get passed Kiko. That was always my plan, hopefully we get the win and then I plan to call out Carl Frampton or Scott Quigg, the winner of that fight.

“Hopefully I do well against Kiko and I get the winner of that fight,” said Santa Cruz before sitting on the fence come prediction time.

“The truth is it’s a 50/50. I think it could go either way. I think it might come down to who lands big first. If Carl Frampton catches him first he will win, if not it’s Quigg.”

ANDY Lee claims that Billy Joe Saunders has turned down the offer of a WBO Middleweight title rematch.

Saunders took Lee’s belt with a points win in Manchester in December and a rematch between the pair looked likely although Saunders also expressed his desire to take on Gennady Golovkin.

However, Adam Booth-trained Lee claims fellow southpaw Saunders has turned down the offer of a rematch.

“We have enquired about a rematch and he was the number one contender, the mandatory challenger so there was no rematch clause,” Lee said.

“There wasn’t a voluntary defence so he doesn’t want it and I can understand that. “That says enough in itself, that he got away with it and you could see in the last few rounds he was boxing in his shell and didn’t want to mix or trade and he knew he had the fight won off those two knock-downs earlier in the fight.”