Matt Chudley previews Sky's British and Commonwealth 154 pound title match-up between champion Anthony Small and challenger Thomas McDonagh.

Friday night's main-event at the Robin Park Centre in Wigan, sees Anthony Small defend his British and Commonwealth Light Middleweight titles against Thomas McDonagh on a Hatton Promotions card.

A promotional free agent and ranked in the top 10 by the WBA and WBO, Small will be looking for a strong showing to boost his future prospects against McDonagh, the tall and awkward house fighter.  But given that neither fighter has much of a fan friendly style, the contest could very well turn into a token eyesore on what has been a stellar autum/winter line-up for Sky Sports.

Having cut his teeth as a pro under the tutelage of David Haye's manager and trainer Adam Booth, Small has since bounced around between various trainers and promoters.  Now working with young and inexperienced David Pereira, it's time for the 28 year old Londoner to start consistently delivering on his loudmouth antics.

After losing to Bradley Pryce in July of 2007, Small strung together a few modest victories and was given a second chance at a British title when the board of control named him as the mandatory challenger to then champion Ryan Rhodes.  Unfortunately for Small, Rhodes pulled out on relatively short notice, but a few months later he got the chance to fight for the vacant belt against Mathew Hall on the Khan-Kotelnik card.

Small emerged with a big upset win after forcing a referee's stoppage in the 8th round.  A hard sell with his very unorthodox style, he will be looking for not only a win but a big performance to improve his chances of securing a long term deal with Hatton promotions or any other big name UK promoter.

Coming off a loss in a British title eliminator, Thomas McDonagh is also renowned for under-achieving and receiving boos.  Tall and lacking power, McDonagh has shown a preference to jab and clinch several times in the past but is an amiable character and is fighting close to home, so he should receive a decent amount of support.

With 34 wins to his credit and both losses only coming by a point, McDonagh's resume is somewhat deceiving and after showing little improvement he was cut loose by promoter Frank Warren. McDonagh will undoubtedly be looking to his jab to negate the speed and athleticism of Small and see if he can keep him on the end of greater length.

On the under-card…

While the card maybe headlined by a lacklustre main event there is plenty of intrigue on the undercard with many touted local prospects and domestic contenders on show.

In what is a must win fight for both, comebacking former 4-time world title challenger Michael Brodie takes on twice beaten prospect Anthony Crolla in a fascinating 50-50 contest over 8 rounds. After looking very shaky in his fiscally motivated return to the ring thus far, Brodie will be stepping back up against Crolla, who featured in an entertaining British super-featherweight eliminator earlier this year.

Also featuring on the card is 21-1 welterweight prospect Mark Thompson who takes on 15-1 Ghanian James Armah in a 10 round eliminator for the Commonwealth welterweight title and former Commonwealth Welterweight Champion Craig Watson (14-3) who goes against Swiss based Algerian Riad Menasria (28-1-1) over 6.

Having spent the summer training at Freddie Roach's wildcard gym in LA at his own expense, super-bantamweight prospect Scott Quigg (15-0) will take a big step up against former Euopean Title challenger Yuri Voronin who gave Bernard Dunne a tough test, in a scheduled 8 rounder.

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SBN coverage of Anthony Small v. Thomas McDonagh (Sky Sports)