Sahir Iqbal

Sahir Iqbal, 24, of Bolton, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom is set to fight Maredudd Thomas, 24, of Cardiff, Wales, UK for the vacant World Boxing Council Youth welterweight title. It is a belt that has been held by plenty of boxing’s biggest names.

Iqbal and Thomas will battle it out at “MTK Fight Night” at Production Park Studios in South Kirkby, Wakefield, West Yorkshire. The show will be aired live on August 12, 2020 in the United States on ESPN+ in association with Top Rank and worldwide on IFL TV.

The WBC Youth strap has previously been around the waist of the likes of Canelo Alvarez and Devin Haney. Iqbal has set his sights on beating Thomas and then matching their career trajectories.

“This is a big title for any young boxer,” Iqbal said. “A lot of the world champions today such as Canelo, Haney and Garcia have all won it coming through so it will be good to be among those names. A win will push me up high in the rankings and open up opportunities to have bigger fights.”

“I take it one fight at a time but the end goal is to become a world champion,” Iqbal continued. “This fight is definitely going to feel different from my previous professional fights in front of fans but I’m used to travelling all over the world as an amateur and fighting in big and small halls with big and small crowds so I don’t think it’ll be too much of a factor.”

Both Iqbal and Thomas are undefeated boxers. The Bolton native has 7 wins and 0 loss while his Welsh opponent has 11 wins and 0 loss.

The upcoming “MTK Fight Night” show at Production Park Studios will be headlined by Jono Carroll vs Maxi Hughes. Also on the fight card are Sean McComb vs Siar Ozgul, Craig MacIntyre vs Ishmael Ellis and Pierce O’Leary vs Jacob Quinn.

It kicks off a brilliant run of “MTK Fight Night” events throughout the summer. Lewis Crocker, Lee McGregor, Gary Cully, Akeem Ennis Brown and Dan Azeez are expected to be in action over the coming months.