European light-heavyweight title challenger Nathan Cleverly lands a right hand to the jaw of Danny McIntosh / Photo © Justin McKie

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Dave Oakes previews Saturday's Sky Sports show featuring the vacant European light-heavyweight title clash between Nathan Cleverly and Antonio Brancalion.

There’s a treat for British boxing fans this weekend as we can look forward to two nights of boxing instead of the usual one, with Frank Warren’s ‘Night of the Champions’ card at the Wembley Arena being show on Saturday night on top of the customary Friday Fight Night show.

The card being billed as ‘ Night of the Champions’ is a bit of a stretch considering there’s only one genuine title fight on the card, which to be fair, wasn’t helped by the withdrawal of Danny Williams from his proposed British title defence. Nevertheless, the card is undoubtedly full of talent and should be a good night of boxing.

The main fight of the night is Nathan Cleverly’s challenge for the European title against Antonio Brancalion. The fight was originally supposed to happen in Italy but Brancalion’s promoters couldn’t fulfil their duty and the fight was switched to this show.

Cleverly shouldn’t have any problems in beating Brancalion, who isn’t exactly a world beater. It’s amazed me how he’s managed to get another crack at the European title considering he was blown away inside a round last time out when he challenged Jurgen Braehmer for the belt.

Cleverly is now unbeaten in eighteen fights and has impressed me in the way he seems to improve with every fight. I also like the fact he’s doing it the traditional way by claiming all three domestic belts before aiming for a world title.

Cleverly’s punch power has also been much improved in his recent fights, he seems to be sitting down on his punches more now than what he was at the start of his career. Brancalion has only been stopped once in forty-one fights (32-7-2 8KO’s) but I feel it’s well within Cleverly’s capabilities for him to become the second man to stop him.

I think Cleverly will take his time and will be happy to get a few rounds under his belt before he picks up the pace and stops Brancalion around the sixth round.

Kevin Mitchell is headlining the card in front of his home fans. He takes on the tough Colombian, Ignacio Mendoza, who’s well known to British fans due to his gutsy effort against John Murray a few years ago.

He gave a young Murray a very hard night’s work before the Manchester man won via a technical decision after a huge mouse (swelling) on the top of Murray’s head caused the fight to be stopped early. As the fight was for the lightly regarded WBC Youth belt, the fight went to the scorecards, if that belt hadn’t been on the line, Murray would’ve lost by stoppage under BBBofC rules.

I haven’t seen Mendoza fight since that defeat but know he’s lost two times since, one of which was inside the distance, though he did avenge that defeat the following year. Mendoza is a strong, aggressive fighter and can hit a bit, especially with the left hook.

Mitchell is unbeaten in thirty fights and is coming off a superb victory over Amir Khan conqueror, Breidis Prescott. I was very impressed with the maturity Mitchell showed against Prescott. It was a dangerous fight for him to take, especially bearing in mind it was his first fight up at lightweight, but he boxed beautifully to win via a wide points decision.

Mitchell should handle Mendoza easily enough; the main test will be whether or not he can stop him.

An interesting match up on the undercard see former amateur star Frankie Gavin take on the experienced and battle hardened Peter McDonagh over six rounds. It represents a good step up in class for Gavin, who’s unbeaten in five so far in his career.

McDonagh is a tough customer who has got respectable wins over Michael Gomez and Lee Purdy. Gavin has stopped all of his opponents to this point but will have his work cut out to stop McDonagh, who possesses a solid chin as well as a huge heart. He’s only been stopped once in twenty-nine fights, that was when a cut derailed his chances of beating Giuseppe Lauri in Italy a couple of years ago.

I think this is a brilliant bit of matchmaking; Gavin should have the skills to beat McDonagh but will be made to work hard for the victory. I expect Gavin to win on points in an entertaining scrap.

Olympic gold medallist James DeGale continues to learn his trade against Matthew Barr. DeGale should be far too good for Barr to contend with and I’d expect DeGale to win inside four rounds.

Derek Chisora takes on Carl Baker in a British title eliminator. Chisora has blown hot and cold thus far in his career but should be far too good for Baker. Baker beat Danny Williams in the ‘Prizefighter’ tournament last year but doesn’t look capable of being anything other than a warm-up fight for the division’s prospects. I think Chisora will win early.

Jamie Cox, the Walsh brothers and Vinny Mitchell are all in action against foes they should handle with ease. The card also sees the pro debut of George Michael Carmen. He’s rumoured to have a very aggressive, crowd pleasing style, but that may just be a careless whisper - We’ll have to wait until fight night to see whether it’s true or not.

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