by Tamas Pradarics
Sunday will be a busy day for fight fans in Bracknell, England, as Siesta Boxing Promotions comes back with a 12-bout card that puts a good number of prospects in action. Leading the show will be South African-born, British-citizen Luther Clay who will take on easily the biggest challenge of his young career against battle-tested Renald Garrido.
The 22-year-old Clay (8-1, 4 KOs) is among the hot prospects in Al Siesta’s fast rising stable of fighters ready to improve and step up to the next level in the ranks. The welterweight, who has the nickname “Black Panther”, started in 2018 with a decision win on the undercard of the George Groves vs Chris Eubank Jr World Boxing Super Series semi-final showdown at Manchester Arena in February that was followed by a TKO victory against a journeyman in Riga, Latvia this past May.
“The Lion” Garrido (21-19, 4 KOs) may have a barely over fifty percent record, he enjoys a five-year, 33-bout advantage in terms of pro experience over his young opponent.
The Frenchman, who is also 12 years Clay senior, faced the likes of Jack Catterall, Frankie Gavin, Yves Ullysse Jr, and Bradley Saunders during his seven-year pro run that saw him become his country’s national champion two times. Garrido’s name also came up as one of the undeserved losers in 2017 as he found himself on the short end of more-than questionable decisions in back-to-back WBO European title bouts against Fatih Keles in Germany.
The bout, that is billed “Animal Kingdom” thanks to the nicknames of the two pugilists, is expected to bring a real rivalry into motion in a typical matchup between youth and experience.
“He's an experienced guy, I see on his record he has fought some of the top boxers like Jack Catterall, Frankie Gavin and Tyrone McKenna. He's boxed a lot of top guys and he's caused a few upsets. He's tough, so I think he's going to come in and drown me. He's going to try and be all over me for eight rounds and he'll be thinking I'm going to get tired or I won't be able to handle the pace. He can't drown me though, because I can swim,” told Clay to Fighttalk’s Adam Noble-Forcey recently.
“Everybody is going to see what I'm going to do to him. I don't have a game plan per-say, but I know how to handle a pressure fighter and whether I am successful or not against Garrido, we are going to see on July 8th.”
Also on the card will be exciting super featherweight Kallia Kourouni (9-1, 1 KO). The Greece-born fighting lady, who has got some attention recently as she won a couple of fringe titles at 130 pounds, is scheduled to have her third straight bout in the UK when she is lacing up her pink gloves against Kristine Shergold (5-6, 1 KO) in an eight round co-featured bout.
Tickets are £40 for standard seating and £60 for ringside and still available for the show. To order tickets call +4407421028927.
You can reach Tamas Pradarics at pradaricst@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter @TomiPradarics.