This coming Saturday, April 30th was supposed to feature the WBO middleweight title defense of Billy Joe Saunders as he was to face Max Bursak, but injury caused Saunders to pull out of the fight. Nevertheless, promoter Frank Warren and his Queensberry Promotions elected to go no with the show that features 15 fights. Five of the fights already are getting a look at the sport books. Heavyweight – 10 rounds Fred Kassi +1250 Hughie Fury -2000 Note: The younger cousin of the heavyweight champion looks to be a polarizing figure in his own right. Some say he is more talented than Tyson Fury, but he has been talking about taking a step-up fight for a while now and it has not happened. Kassi is 18-4-1 overall and he has gone 0-2-1 in his last three fights against Dominic Breazeale, Chris Arreola and Amir Mansour. Fury, at 19-0 is looking to add the vacant WBO International title to his curriculum. It will be intersting to see if Fury winds up on the undercard of his cousin’s rematch with Waldimir Klitschko scheduled for July 9th. Super Flyweight – 12 rounds Anthony Nelson +900 Jamie Conlan -1610 Note: a pair of undefeated fighters as 11-0 Commonwealth champion Anthony Nelson comes in a big underdog to 15-0 challenger Jamie Conlan. The fight is England vs Ireland, and though he is currently the British belt holder, Nelson is coming in a big underdog to the Irishman Conlan. Super Featherweight – 12 rounds Troy James +550 Liam Walsh -925 Note: Undefeated British super featherweight champion Liam Walsh (19-0) takes on the challenge of Troy James (18-2-1). James is on a six fight winning streakand his last loss, in September of 2012 cam to future world titleholder Terry Flanagan. For his part, Walsh has been fighitng at the national and european title level for more than five years now and he won both of his 2015 outings via stoppage. Middleweight – 6 rounds Matiouze Royer +3500 Vijender Singh -10000 Note: India’s Olympic Bronze medalist Vijender Singh is now 4-0 as a professional fighter since his debut in October of 2015, and at 30 years old he is trying to move his career along fast. He has matches booked in May and in June, so he is looking past Matiouze Royer, who is 14-24-6 overall and represents Singh’s most seasoned competition to date. Featherweight – 12 rounds Ryan Walsh +120 James Tennyson -150 Note: The British featherweight title is on the lone between titleholder Ryan Walsh (20-1-1) and challenge James Tennyson (16-1). This will be Walsh’s second defense of the title, but he faces the most competitive line of the evening and suffers the indignity of seeing the challenger come in as the favorite. Walsh’s lone loss in October of 2013 comes at the hands of Lee Selby, who went on to win a world title, For all of Tennyson’s hype, exactly five of his opponents have had winning records, so Walsh has been fighting at a much higher level.
