Jon fired up for title tilt

JON KAYS . . . feeling strong and confident.

BOXING:


JON ‘2 Smokes’ Kays is relishing his birthday battle for the British super-featherweight title next weekend.

Current English champion and Oldham favourite Kays, 31 this Saturday, will be gunning for revenge on that day when he faces Gary Sykes at Dewbury Leisure Centre.

Sykes beat Kays on points in Sheffield 12 months ago, but the Ashton star has prepared well for the biggest battle of his 22-fight pro career.

Kays said: “Camp has gone really well, I feel stronger than I have ever done before, and I’ve been boxing a long time. Now it’s just about focus. I know it’s my birthday on Saturday, but I’m not even thinking about celebrating that until Sunday. This is the biggest fight of my career and it’s going to be hard.”

An added incentive for the opponents is that the victor has already been guaranteed a place on the Tyson Fury v Dereck Chisora clash undercard at the Manchester Arena on July 26.

On that night, Kays or Sykes will defend their title against current Commonwealth champion Liam Walsh, another fighter to whom Kays has previously lost.

“It means I’ve got two revenge missions in the pipeline at the moment,” added Kays.



Oldham’s Ronnie Heffron takes on Joe Selkirk for the WBO European light-middleweight title on the Fury-Chisora bill.