Bradley Strand faces Joshua John for vacant WBO European title
Unbeaten prospect Bradley Strand (10-0, 4KO) faces title contender Joshua John (8-1) for the vacant WBO European super-bantamweight title on Friday, December 1 at the York Hall in London.
The 122-pounders will clash at the 'Home of Boxing' in Bethnal Green on the undercard of Gavin Gwynne vs Emiliano Marsili, live on TNT Sports.
Trained by Paul Stevenson, the 11th bout of Brad's career will serve as his first championship contest, but his next opponent is already experienced in title fights.
Port Talbot's Joshua John challenged for the Celtic featherweight title in just his fifth fight in May 2022. The 29-year-old Welshman narrowly lost to undefeated opponent Mark McKeown by just a single point on two of the judges' cards, which remains the only defeat on his record.
He has since bounced back with four straight points wins, including a career-best victory over former English champion Michael Ramabeletsa. John defeated the South African 'Troublemaker' 78-74 on points in Cardiff this year. The three other triumphs were all shut-out points scores, including a landslide win over Brett Fidoe, regarded as one of the most dangerous journeymen in the country.
Brad has also defeated Brett 'The Threat' Fidoe on a shut-out, back in 2020 in his first fight for Queensberry. The 26-year-old Merseysider signed with promoter Frank Warren at the same time as teammates Nick Ball and Andrew Cain from the Everton Red Triangle.
Strand is an ABA Elites champion and has defeated four winning fighters so far in his 10 pro bouts, and John will be the fifth winning opponent he has faced. Only the tough Darwin Martinez has been able to score a round against Strand, in his penultimate fight in November last year.
The stylist from Liverpool has yet to put a single foot wrong in his career but 10-rounds with another up-and-coming prospect in Joshua John will his toughest trial yet.
But it's a test that Strand is thoroughly relishing, he says, "I'm proper looking forward to it, been wanting a step up for ages and, obviously this year, I've only had the one fight so it's been a bit slow for me, so it would be nice to finish the year on a high with my first title and, obviously, the first of many."
Strand's place of work – the century-old, talent-laden Everton Red Triangle gym in Albion Street, Liverpool – is filled with champions already, such as WBC Silver featherweight sensation Nick Ball, who is mandatory to the WBC World title after defeating former world champion Isaac Dogboe this month.
Tokyo 2020 Olympian Peter McGrail picked up his first title in his last outing and travels to America to defend it in December, and now Brad gets his chance to become a champion himself, but nothing will be changing in his preparation for his maiden title shot, he revealed, "My mindset in camp is always the same for every fight because, you know how it is in boxing, if you don't take the fight seriously, you'll come unstuck, so I just take every fight as serious as next really, so I'm looking forward to it, I can't wait."
Strand is ranked #9 in the British super-bantamweight rankings by BoxRec and John is at #10.
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