It will be an all-Devon dust-up at the York Hall on April 22nd when Teignmouth’s Ben Day (8-2-1) locks horns with Kingsteington’s Jamie Speight (14-10) for the vacant Southern Area featherweight crown.
Both Devonians are former Area champions and regulars at the York Hall in Bethnal Green.
Day became an Area titlist when he triumphed over Ryan Taylor (10-5-1) with a first round stoppage in December 2015 for the super-lightweight strap.
His next two results went the other way – a narrow points loss to Floyd Moore (12-6-1) in March last year, followed by his first career stoppage at the hands of Michael Devine (14-5-1) in December, both challenges for the lightweight version.
Speight has been involved in Southern Area title fights for the past five years, starting with Scott Moises (3-4) in March 2012, edging the win 97-95 on points for the super-featherweight belt in local Plymouth.
It wasn’t until five title fights later in May 2014 that Speight prevailed again and became a two-weight Area champion when he retired Craig Whyatt (7-1) in the eighth-round to claim the Southern Area featherweight title.
‘The Genius’ has been involved in a whopping seven Southern Area title fights and twice challenged for the English Championship.
Both fighters are coming into their championship clash off the back of a loss in separate Southern Area title fights on the same bill last December at London’s York Hall.
Speight conceded his featherweight title that he had held for over two-and-a-half years to Josh Kennedy (8-0) on the same night that Devine halted Day in the second round of their Southern Area lightweight championship clash.
The Devonian-turned-Londoner admitted that he has learnt from his mistakes as he moves down two weight divisions to face rival Speight, “I’ll be dropping down to featherweight because I weighed in for my last fight with all my clothes on with two mobile phones in my pocket.
“I walk around at featherweight level when I’m not in training.”
Jamie speight added, “To me, it’s just another fight, another body, another human…it’s a job at the end of the day but mit’s a great advertisement that two Devon boxers can top a bill in London at the UK’s most famous boxing venue.”
To follow Ben Day on Twitter click here @benday32
Ben would like to thank his sponsors, Ringtone Boxing Gym and PR Manager Tim Rickson