If Grimsby’s Kevin Hooper is to win the vacant English super-featherweight crown at the Oldham Sports Centre on October 5, then he will have to outsmart local favourite Jon ‘2 Smokes’ Kays to do it.
With the entire bill streamed live and free on VIPBOXING.TV, Kevin is not fazed at boxing away from home. The 29-year-old is confident he has enough in the locker to upset the local fans and is convinced Kays’ fighting style will suit him perfectly.
“He’s quite a tidy boxer,” explained Kevin, who has just one defeat in 14 outings. “He’s compact and likes to come forward, and I think it suits my style and it’ll be a good fight. I’m very confident in myself and believe I’ll win. I’m not looking for a knockout, if it comes it comes, I’m looking for a good points win.
“It’s a 50-50 fight between me and Jon. We both want the title and we’re both coming off losses to Gary Sykes and we’ve got a lot to prove. I can’t afford to lose; I want to go places and this fight is going to put me up there, so this is a must-win fight for myself.
“I’m very confident. I’ve trained extra hard for this, more than I did for the Sykes fight. I’m coming off that loss and I don’t want that again so I’m putting all the effort in. I’ve had a really good camp and I’m just excited for it.”
Sykes is the common denominator between the pair; with both having English title points losses on their ledgers to the former British champion. Predicting a close and exciting encounter, Gary is siding with his VIP stable-mate Kays to edge it and collect his first title.
“Hooper will throw a lot of punches and will be there, but he didn’t seem to be too hard to work out. I read him a little bit easier than Jon,” revealed ‘Five Star’ Sykes. “Kays was hard to read at times. For the first few rounds he led me a bit of a merry dance and he were hard to figure out. So, it’ll definitely be an interesting fight, Hooper will throw a lot and works hard, but I think Kays might be a bit too cagey for him.”
Promoter Steve Wood said: “This is a really competitive fight and it could go either way. Both came up short against Sykes but I feel that Jon has a bit more quality about his work and will be too good for Kevin. Either way it will be really exciting. The rest of the bill is quality too with the likes of former Prizefighter winner Terry Flannigan, Kerry Hope and local favourite Ronnie Heffron appearing. We’ve been streaming all our shows live and free on VIPBOXING.TV and the feedback from the boxing public has been tremendous, so if you can’t get along to the show then tune in on the night.”
VIP Promotions presents Jon Kays versus Kevin Hooper for the vacant English super-featherweight title at the Oldham Sports Centre on October 5. The undercard will feature boxers from across the Northwest including Merseyside’s Gary Ormrod and James Metcalf; Middleton’s Alex Rutter and Curtis Gargano; Manchester’s Sam Omidi and Terry Flannigan, Oldham’s Ronnie Heffron, Ashley Mayall and Marvin Greaves; Denton’s Callum Cooke; Burnley’s Atif Ali, and Morecambe’s Isaac Lowe. Also appearing will be former European middleweight champion, Wales’ Kerry Hope.
Tickets, priced at £30 (General) and £60 (Ringside), are available from all boxers or at www.vipbe.co.uk
The show will also be streamed live and free at www.vipboxing.tv
Keep updated on VIP Promotions’ news by visiting www.vipboxing.com or follow on Twitter @vipboxing and Facebook.
