Vacant WBO European Middleweight title: Danny Dignum (11-0) v Conrad Cummings (17-3-1) (tonight, York Hall, live on ESPN+)
CONRAD Cummings made his professional debut at York Hall and, after ups and downs and twists and turns in his career throughout the five years since, the Tyrone middleweight intends to kick-start the second phase of his career back at the London venue tonight.
Cummings meets unbeaten Essex scrapper Danny Dignum for the vacant WBO European Middleweight title; the fourth time he will have fought for the belt and the rankings points it provides.
The Coalisland fighter beat Gogi Knezevic to win the title in 2017, lost it to Luke Keeler a year later, then regained it against Ferenc Berki only to have it ripped from his grasp by Dubliner Keeler again. He came close to hanging up his gloves after that loss before fighting a new lease of life at Paul McCullough’s gym in Belfast and is now focussed on winning the belt for a third time.
“This is a chance to become three-time WBO European champion and get me back in the WBO world rankings,” said Cummings.
“Dignum will be a hard fight, he’s undefeated and I’m coming to his home territory, but I’ve prepared extremely well and learned from the past and I’ll use that as a positive.
“I’ve trained for 10 hard rounds if it goes that long, I have a plan and I’ll execute it to bring that title home.
“This is perfect for me, I fought at Ulster Hall last month and won to get the rust off, and it was a solid win under my new team. I stayed in the gym straight away and now it’s good to have momentum going into this fight.
“I’m taking positives off the losses to Keeler. He lost to the same guy twice and now he’s on the cusp of a world title, so that’s my motivation.”
Southpaw prospect Dignum has made his way to 11-0 but Cummings is his first real test. He is tall and a southpaw and could prove awkward but Cummings has the experience and pedigree to win this tonight.
“Conrad has held this title before and he’s a very good fighter that I rate, but I think I’m a bit fresher than him,” said Dignum this week.
“He’s been in some hard fights, and now it’s my time to shine. It’s going to be a good fight and on Saturday I’m confident that I’ll be picking up my first title.”
