Heaney vs Pauls headlines Mar. 16 “Magnificent Seven” show in Birmingham
Joe Joyce, Solomon Dacres, Liam Davies, and Zach Parker will also be in action
Frank Warren’s decades-long love affair with the “Magnificent Seven” brand shows no sign of slowing down, as Queensberry will stage the latest installment on March 16th in Birmingham.
This includes the previously revealed clash between Joe Joyce (15-2, 14 KO) and Kash Ali (21-2, 12 KO), though it appears that Solomon Dacres (8-0, 2 KO) will face TBA instead of David Adeleye thanks to the latter’s disciplinary suspension.
As for the other five, newly crowned British middleweight champ Nathan Heaney (18-0, 6 KO) makes his inaugural defense against Brad Pauls (18-1, 10 KO). Pauls is a low-to-mid-level domestic fighter who on paper shouldn’t stop Heaney from fighting in his native Stoke later this year, but you could have said the same thing about Heaney before last year’s huge upset of Denzel Bentley.
British and European super bantamweight champ Liam Davies (15-0, 7 KO) takes on Erik Robles Ayala (15-1, 9 KO), who continued the trend of Mexicans bullying UK champs on their home turf by upsetting Lee McGregor for the IBO belt last July. Also at 122, Dennis McCann (14-0-1, 8 KO) looks to bounce back from a draw against Ionut Baluta at Brad Strand’s (11-0, 3 KO) expense.
Finally, 23-year-old welterweights Ethan James (12-0, 0 KO) and Owen Cooper (9-0, 3 KO) battle for the English title formerly held by Danny Ball and former top super middleweight contender Zach Parker (23-1, 17 KO) looks to continue his comeback from injury against former secondary titlist Tyron Zeuge (27-1-1. 15 KO).
Definitely a couple of decent tussles in there to go with the fluff. Not what I’d call a “magnificent” lineup, but far from Warren’s worst.