THE May 10 card at Nottingham Arena headlined by Anthony Cacace vs Leigh Wood now has three intriguing undercard fights confirmed.
Queensberry Promotions announced the details yesterday via X and the first of the three bouts sees former British, Commonwealth and European super bantamweight champion Liam Davies taking on unbeaten Irish featherweight hope Kurt Walker.
Davies’ reputation soared from winning the Lonsdale belt against Marc Leach to capturing the IBO strap with a decisive second-round win against Erik Robles Ayala. Davis’s great form was ended last November, however, by a dominant performance from old amateur rival Shabaz Masoud. The Ben Davison-trained super-bantamweight rose to the occasion to win by split decision, although that was somewhat generous to Davies.
Rather than take a fight where he is widely expected to win Davies, 16-1 (8 KOs), will now face the 2020 Olympian Kurt Walker, 12-0 (2 KOs), who lost out on a medal in Tokyo when beaten by Duke Ragan in their quarter-final bout.
Walker’s transition to the professional code has seen him rack up a dozen fights, winning all, including earlier in March against a tigerish Leon Woodstock. Their 10-round fight in Belfast was Walker’s toughest to date but he got over the line with a majority decision.
Elsewhere on the May 10 card light heavyweights Ezra Taylor, 11-0 (8 KOs), and Troy Jones, 12-0 (6 KOs), put their unbeaten records on the line with the powerful Taylor looking to move on to a clash against British champion Lewis Edmondson. The two men are in the early stages of a rivalry that could get settled this year, but Jones, a former English champion, will also be eyeing a shot at Edmondson.
Finally, at welterweight, two former opponents of British champion Ekow Essuman will look to remain part of the bigger picture domestically and elsewhere. Former English champion Owen Cooper, 10-1 (4 KOs), lost an action-packed contest to Essuman last time out while Kongo, 17-2 (7 KOs), dropped a majority decision to ‘The Engine’ in January 2023.
Kongo bounced back, however, to handle business with Albanian puncher Florian Marku doing so in impressive fashion. Since then, the 32-year-old Londoner has boxed twice over six rounds in low-key contests, winning both as expected.
