Ian “Dappa” Napa 19-7 (1) looks to retain his British and earn the Commonwealth bantamweight
championship tomorrow night as the main event on Sky Sports. His opponent will be
the tough Jamie McDonnell 12-2-1 (5).
As previously reported by Fight Franchise, Napa will travel to France for the European title in a couple of months time should Napa win tomorrow night. Napa was touted for stardom when he first turned pro but never quite reached the heady heights. Part of the problem is that Napa is probably a natural flyweight or at worst a super flyweight. However due to the dearth of talent in the UK at these lighter weights, Napa has been forced to campaign at bantamweight.
McDonnell is a good challenger and is on a roll of four consecutive wins. His two defeats were back to back losses in very close fights. He lost a split decision to Chris Edwards in 2007 for the British super flyweight title and a 77-76 points loss to Lee Haskins in early 2008. McDonnell will certainly not lie down for anybody and will fight at a good pace for 12 rounds. However I feel Napa is just that bit better than anyone on the domestic scene and I feel he will win a close points decision.
Lots of prospects on the undercard including the brash Ashley Sexton 8-0 (4) fighting for the vacant English flyweight title against Usman Ahmed 6-2-1 (0). Sexton is young and doesn’t lack self confidence and so far has looked good albeit a little too easy to hit. Ahmed is definitely a step up for Sexton but Ahmed was pretty much outclassed by Chris Edwards in a British title fight and if Sexton is too progress to a higher level he should be too good.
Tom Dallas 8-0 (6) is starting to make waves in the heavyweight division and can certainly bang. However he stands awfully straight up and will need to rectify that if he is to get in the domestic mix. His opponent tomorrow is Yavor Marinchev 5-17 (3). Marinchev is not a very good fighter but is very durable having taken lots of prospects the full route. Dallas will be looking for a stoppage but this may not happen.
George Groves 7-0 (5) continues his education and should have too much ability and firepower for Grigor Sarohanian 2-2 (0). Groves campaigns at super middleweight, has an amateur win over Olympic champ James DeGale and is definitely a potential boxing star.
By JIMMY LAST (EDITOR)
