Confident Brad Strand not worried about Dennis McCann
Super bantamweight prospect Brad Strand (11-0, 3 KOs) backs himself to beat Frank Warren’s golden boy, Dennis McCann (14-0-1, 8 KOs), ahead of their domestic dustup on March 16 at Resorts World Arena, Birmingham.
The highly-anticipated show – promoted by Queensberry – will feature a stacked night of boxing on TNT Sports, built as the second edition of Warren’s “Magnificent Seven” card which took place in November last year.
On the undercard, Liverpool’s Strand will put his flawless record on the line against charismatic contender McCann, from Maidstone, fully confident he will come out on top.
In an interview on Queensbury’s YouTube channel, Strand said: “I’ve had people try and stick it on me over the years. With my style, it plays right into my hands.
“Although he’s younger than me, he’s been in a lot more press conferences and has been boxing on bigger shows. He’s a good talker but, in terms of in the ring, I haven’t even watched much of him.
“I’ve only watched the [Ionut] Baluta fight, but I watched that live on the night. As I said the other day, I’m not going to start picking his performance [apart]. Baluta doesn’t do what I do.
“I haven’t seen anything where I need to worry about this or worry about that.”
While Strand remains relatively untested as a professional, he was able to secure two wins over world-ranked contender Liam Davies – also featuring on the card – during his amateur career, which also saw him crowned ABA Elites champion before turning over.
Trained by Paul Stevenson, who is currently in Saudi Arabia with Strand’s teammate Nick Ball for his world title shot at WBC featherweight champion, Rey Vargas.
Strand won the WBO European super bantamweight bet in his last fight against Joshua John at the York Hall in December. He outpointed the Welshman unanimously, one scorecard returned at 99-91, and came close to forcing the stoppage in the final round.
As for McCann, the flashy slickster came away from his acid test against Baluta with a draw, after he was cut on the forehead following an accidental clash of heads in their contest last August.
With the fight stopped in the ninth round, the 23-year-old was denied a chance to edge the nip-and-tuck affair going into the final round, as his unrelenting injury meant that it went straight to the judges’ scorecards.
WBO #11 McCann and WBO #12 Strand will clash for the vacant WBO Inter-Continental super bantamweight title, with the winner guaranteed a top 10 world ranking.