Smooth boxing Ian “Dappa” Napa 19-7 (1) has an added incentive to retain his British
bantamweight championship this coming Friday.
Napa’s promoter Frank Maloney revealed that if Napa beats Jamie McDonnell 12-2-1 (5) he gets another shot at the European bantamweight crown.
In October 2008, Napa beat Carmelo Ballone for the European bantamweight title but lost it in his first defence against Malik Bouziane. Now if he beats McDonnell he gets another chance. At 31 years old Napa needs to move fast as he is in the twilight of his career and if he can win the European title once more, could even get a World title shot.
Assuming Napa does beat McDonnell, he goes to France for a bout against Jerome Arnould on March 6th. Napa’s promoter Maloney made the following statement:
“It was a reasonable offer so we decided to take the risk and travel. The other problem I had if I went to purse bids and won, I would not have been able to stage the bout until the end of April because I have so many champions to keep busy with my booked TV dates. The EBU would not allow the fight to be delayed that long and Ian would have risked losing his nomination”.
I for one, certainly hope Napa wins both fights and gets lucky enough to get a World title fight. There are not many better servants to the British boxing scene.
By JIMMY LAST (EDITOR)
