Kent Fight Night
Grant Dennis, Martin McDonagh, Dave Jones and Martin Hillman all back in action on stacked show
Boxing Connected have announced their next show back at Maidstone Leisure Centre on Saturday, November 6, with local favourites Grant Dennis, Martin Hillman, Martin McDonagh and heavyweight Dave Jones topping the bill, plus a quartet of exciting debutants making their pro bow.
It’s the first event back at the popular venue since February 2020, shortly before the first lockdown was enforced.
The line-up on Fireworks Night weekend features former Southern Area middleweight champion Grant Dennis (16-3, 3KOs), who ended 2020 with a career-first stoppage defeat at the hands of WBC #13 Andrey Sirotkin despite a spirited performance from the away corner in Belarus.
But 2021 has been better for the ‘Go-Getter’, having spent a few weeks sparring in the Canary Islands with two-weight world ruler Billy Joe Saunders to help prepare for his mega-fight with Mexican superstar Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez back in May. Then he won his last fight in September 40-36 on points to get back to winning ways again.
Trained by Veron Quammie, the Chatham middleweight has won British and International Challenge belts, the prestigious Southern Area strap, challenged for an English title, and also reached an Ultimate Boxxer final.
The 37-year-old now has titles in his sights, “Hopefully I can challenge for major titles in the next six months,” he said. “I’m ranked No.11 in the country so I’m breaking into that top 10. My last fight and this fight is just about getting the ring rust off, but I don’t take anyone for granted, so just going to work on the things I’ve been learning in the gym, then I want major fights with top opponents, hopefully on big TV shows.”
Sidcup’s exciting Martin Hillman (14-6, 2KOs) is back for the first time since the last card took place over 21 months ago, where he picked up a points win.
For his first fight back in almost two years, he has a tough assignment in front of him in former Ghanaian super-bantamweight champion Raymond Commey (19-14-1, 10KOs).
The 34-year-old from Accra has also won a WBA Pan African title during his 12-year career and just recently took top featherweight prospect Raza Hamza (16-0-1, 7KOs) the distance over eight-rounds.
Hillman has challenged for the Southern Area title on three occasions. His last attempt against Duane Winters in 2018 saw him cruelly denied the win by a single point from the away corner in Bristol. Since then, he has put together four straight wins with the intention of challenging for titles again.
“I asked Joe [Elfidh] for a real fight against someone with a winning record,” Hillman said. “I know he’s very experienced and previously won a few African titles so I’m expecting to have my hands full on the night. I think he’s tough and durable having been the 12-round distance a few times, but I feel I’ve improved massively over the last year and I’m looking forward to showing that against him on the night.
“Because of inactivity, I’ve dropped out of the ratings at the moment, so getting the win will put me back up there at a decent place. After this fight I would like to get my hands on a professional title, but just concentrating on winning this one for now.”
Trained by Billy Rumbol, lightweight Martin McDonagh (8-2) heads back to the ring for the first time since his brave effort against Harlem Eubank (now 12-0, 4KOs) in September last year, where the southpaw from Sheerness pushed the unbeaten Eubank until he was stopped within 30 seconds from the end of the eight-round contest.
As an amateur he won gold at the Three Nations and reached the final of the ABA Elites, losing out to Tokyo 2020 Olympian Luke McCormack.
Sheppey’s Dave Jones (8-2-1) makes a dramatic comeback after three years, believing that his boxing career was all over.
Back-to-back KO losses to Martin Bakole and Daniel Dubois in 2018 resulted in the six-foot-five heavyweight being told that a broken eye socket could mean he may never box again. However, he was unexpectedly given the green light by his surgeon to fight on, but the welcome news came just at the same time as lockdown begun.
Second time around, the 39-year-old is driven by the desire to win titles, he said, “IT feels like a second chance so I want to go for titles this time; it got to the point last time where I could have prioritised titles but went for money fights instead, but I don’t regret those fights one little bit.
“I’m looking at the Southern Area or potentially the English title, it depends who’s about at the time, even the British belt if the right fights are there.”
The ‘Senegal Tiger’ Matar Sambou (1-9, 1KO), 37 from Barnet, will occupy the home corner for the first time in his career having travelled all over the country facing some of the best prospects in the UK, such as Eithan James (6-0) and Joe Underwood Hughes (6-0, 1KO), of which none have been able to stop him.
Four debutants round up the undercard – Nicola Barke, Lee Page Jr., Tyrone King, Robert Caswell.
Middleweight King, 21 from Sittingbourne, faces 32-year-old Luke Middleton (2-12-2); Page Jr. is pitted against Polish cruiserweight Pawel Strykowski (3-13); and Caswell will clash with Luke Fash (2-67-3). ‘The Burmese Python’ Barke is yet to have her opponent confirmed.
The event at Maidstone Leisure Centre on November 6 costs £40 per ticket or £60 for ringside with waitress service. Doors open at 6pm, boxing starts at 7pm.
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