Matthew Macklin and Matthew Hall to fight for vacant European Titles

News

Frank Warren’s huge Magnificent Seven show in Birmingham on Saturday 18th September rolls on.

Following the recent withdrawals of Darren Barker and Ryan Rhodes from their fights against Matthew Macklin and Lukas Konecny, respectively, Warren has been working hard to keep one of the biggest shows of his career together.

The Hall of Fame promoter can now confirm that Macklin will face hard Georgian Shalva Jomardashvili for the Vacant European Middleweight title, while Manchester’s Matthew Hall gets a golden opportunity against Konecny for the Vacant European Light-Middleweight title.

The blockbuster card also features Nathan Cleverly’s WBO World Light-Heavyweight title eliminator against Karo Murat; Kell Brook’s WBO Intercontinental Welterweight title defence against Michael Jennings; Enzo Maccarinelli’s European Cruiserweight title defence against Alexander Frenkel; British heavyweight champion Derek Chisora against Commonwealth Champion Sam Sexton; James DeGale’s Eliminator for the British Super-Middleweight title against Carl Dilks; Frankie Gavin versus Michael Kelly for the Vacant Irish Light-Welterweight Championship and Don Broadhurst against Najah Ali for the Vacant International Masters Bantamweight Championship.

The Magnificent Seven will be broadcast live and exclusive on Sky Box Office.

Macklin, who recently returned from his training camp at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, said, “I was gutted to hear that Barker had pulled out of our fight, but I’m a positive person and the main thing for me and my fans is that I’m still fighting in my home town of Birmingham,”

“Frank has done a fantastic job for me and I’m fighting for the vacant European title so I will still achieve my dream of winning it in front of my fans,”

“I can honestly say my training for the Barker fight has the best it’s ever been and I was looking forward to facing him on the night,”

“I was looking to make a real statement to show who is the best in Britain and I’m confident I could have done Barker inside five rounds,”

“Barker’s out now so he’s in the past and I’ve got to concentrate on Jomardashvili and work out a new game plan with my trainer,”

“Like I said, the main thing for me is that I’m still fighting and I’ve got a great chance to win the European title in Birmingham.”

Manchester puncher Hall was due to fight a week after the Birmingham show in London and is fit and ready to go.

“I had a strange feeling that something like this was going to happen, don’t ask me why, but I just felt it was going to happen,”

“It’s a dream come for me to fight for the European title and I’m going to win it,”

“I’m a massive Manchester United fan and like them, I’ve got the chance to become champion of Europe,”

“Obviously I’m in great shape because of my fight that was going to happen the following week, but I’ve been given an extra boost by this great news,”

Warren, in his 30th year as a promoter, said, “It’s been a hectic few days and nothing is ever easy in this sport, but I’m delighted that both Matthews (Macklin and Hall) will get the chance to fight for European titles on what will be a super night of boxing,”

“Macklin has put in a lot of hard work training in America leading up to this fight and it least it will not go to waste,”

“He’s still got a very tough fight against Jomardasvili who he now has to prepare for,”

“For Hall, it’s great to give him the opportunity to get back into the big time and challenge for the European title and I believe that he can do it.”

“It a great card featuring some of the best British boxers and some potentially thrilling domestic showdowns.”

A Comics Nexus original, Will Cooling has written about comics since 2004 despite the best efforts of the industry to kill his love of the medium. He now spends much of his time over at Inside Fights where he gets to see muscle-bound men beat each up without retcons and summer crossovers.