Scottish Amateur And Professional Boxing
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Ricky Burns will face British Lightweight Champion, Graham Earl, at Wembley Conference Centre on Friday night.
The 21 year old from Coatbridge has taken the fight at 48 hours notice and is seen as a warm up opponent for Earl in what is a eight round non-title fight ahead of the champion's forthcoming defence against Kevin Bennett.
26 year old Earl is unbeaten in 22, but hasn't fought since last July when he secured a stoppage win over Steve Murray. Previous to that he had two controversial wins over Bobby Vanzie, but there's no doubting Earl's pedigree at domestic level.
Burns has won all nine of his fights to date and the youngster has nothing to lose and everything to gain by fighting Earl, with the the possibility of catapulting himself onto the domestic stage if he can cause an upset. The last Scot to fight a British Champion was John Simpson and we all know how close he came to upseting boxing's apple cart.
And if Burns can take Earl the distance a surprise could well be on the cards. Stamina will be a big factor, with Burns only once having fought once over eight rounds to date with his other bouts being four and six rounders.
The bout is the pick of the undercard with top of the bill going to the WBU Heabvyweight title fight between England's Matt Skelton and Argentina's Fabio Eduardo Moli. Sky TV will be there to cover that fight live from 10pm and the Earl v Burns fight is also scheduled to be shown afterwards.
Another Scottish boxer likely to appear on Sky's coverage is London based Craig Lynch who faces the heavily touting Martin Concepcion over six rounds at Light Middleweight.
23 year old Concepcion has won all nine fights since turning pro just over a year ago, eight inside the distance - in fact he has only boxed 18 rounds to date thanks to his stoppage power. He has been well chaparoned however, facing only journeymen and the inexperienced to date.
30 year old Lynch from Edinburgh is the latest in the procession of victims lined up for the golden boy, but he will be looking to blot the copybook of the man who goes under the name of "Immaculate". He'll certainly want to put 2004 behind him - nine straight losses and a Scottish Middleweight title defeat at the hands of Barrie Lee.
But as so often happens with those cast in the role of journeyman, Lynch has fought some of the best names on the domestic scene, including Neil Sinclair, Thomas McDonagh and Matthew Hall in recent months. Indeed he has only ever been stopped once, by Bradley Pryce back in 2002, and Concepcion will do very well to repeat the feat. If he can't stop him, then Lynch just might chalk up a hugely unexpected win.
Both Ricky and Craig are there to make up the numbers, have no doubt about that. But both also have a fantastic opportunity to shine in front of the television cameras. Victory for either boxer would be a superb achievement, but our money is on one of them being able to do just that. After all, it is Wembley.
Tickets, priced at £30, £50 and £75, are available from the Sports Network Box Office on 01992 550 888 or online at frankwarren.tv