Luton boxer, Michael Devine 13-2-1 will be back in the ring on May 16th when he takes on Adam Dingsdale 12-2-1 for his Southern Area lightweight title at York Hall.
The Goodwin Promotions show features a whopping 16 scheduled fights with seven of those billed as title fights featuring four Southern Area title clashes as well as three Masters titles fights making it one of the best non-TV shows of 2015.
A former Southern Area champion himself at super-featherweight back in 2013 received via a points win over Dan Naylor, the challenger said, “I totally respect Dingsdale, he’s a cracking little fighter. We are both on the same level but I’m always improving and I’m the biggest puncher of the two.”
He continued, “This is worthy of an English title fight, our styles gel well and it’s going to be one hell of a fight.”
Devine comes into this fight off the back of a commendable Prizefighter campaign that saw him reach the tournament final losing on points to eventual winner, Jono Carroll after flooring rival, Danny Connor in the quarter-final and scoring a fine one punch KO over Essex boxer, Lee Martin in the semi’s.
“Being live on Sky Sports and even all the promotional things that we did was all great experience for me and that’s the level I want to be at,” said 25-year-old Devine. “Even getting beaten by Jono Carroll in the final will be good for me because he can go all the way, he may have looked classier in those three rounds but I gave him a good fight. If it was over 10 rounds then I would have been more patient but over three rounds I lunged in more than I would have normally. That gave me massive confidence in myself because I always knew I had power but I showed it on the big stage that night.”
The 27-year-old champion, Dingsdale from Kent has an almost identical record to his challenger and he puts his second professional title on the line which he won in June last year from Portsmouth’s Floyd ‘Pacman’ Moore.
His only defeats have come in big title fights when he failed to claim the vacant WBC Continental lightweight title against Derry Matthews in October last year and his first ever loss was handed to him by former WBO European lightweight champion, Stephen Ormond in October 2013.
Devine said of his forthcoming foe, “He’s been in there with Ormond and Mathews and he’s experienced that top level so you can’t take nothing away from him and he’s got a great team behind him. I want to push on from Prizefighter now so I’ve been on the big stage myself. The winner of this fight will go on to fight for an English title, every fight for me now gets bigger.”
The pair were due to lock horns in March this year but injury forced the challenger to pull out.
The Luton boxer explained, “From Prizefighter, I injured my shoulder in the punch that floored Danny Connor so after the show I had four weeks off. Then, I went running in the New Year and did my calf in, then I went to the gym and did some bag work and done my other calf! Then, sparring Ben Jones, I ripped tendons in my elbow and in my rotator cuff. I did try to soldier on but it was too big a fight for me to take the risk.”
Dingsdale, intent on keeping busy, took another fight on March 14th in his home area of Gillingham, Kent beating Fonz Alexander on points over six rounds.
Of his injury woes, Devine clarified, “I’ve felt little niggles at start of camp but I’m getting stronger, everything is going to plan, sparring is starting to get harder now. We’ve been doing a lot more hill runs for this fight because me and Dingsdale have both got a high work rate so I’m putting everything possible in the tank for this one.”
