WBA World Lightweight title eliminator: James Tennyson (27-3) v Josh O’Reilly (16-0) (tonight, Sky Sports Main Event from 7pm)
THE lure of a potential world title fight at Madison Square Garden or in Las Vegas against a global superstar like Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis or Golovkin conqueror Teofimo Lopez is the prize on offer tonight when James Tennyson and Josh O’Reilly mix it at Wembley Arena.
In the chief support to the Billy Joe Saunders versus Martin Murray WBO super-middleweight battle of Britain, unbeaten Irish-Canadian O’Reilly will have to produce the performance of his career to win. As holder of the NABA title, he is ranked above Belfast’s Tennyson with the WBA so he has good credentials and hopes to do what no other lightweight has achieved yet - go the distance with hammer-handed Belfast fighter Tennyson.
A career lightweight, O’Reilly is naturally the bigger man and his long arms will give him reach advantage. Tennyson does throw caution to the wind to land game-changing shots and he is hittable so O’Reilly’s plan will be to stay on his toes, vary the distance and throw the Belfast man off balance so he can’t set himself for the power punches that have cut a swathe through the lightweight ranks since he moved up from super-featherweight early last year.
It’s easier said than done.
O’Reilly name-checked Gavin Gwynne in the build-up to the fight. Gwynne did do very well for spells when he faced ‘the Assassin’ in a British Lightweight title clash in August but by the end of the fifth round the punishment he’d shipped had taken a severe toll on the Welshman who was battered into submission in the sixth.
Gwynne didn’t have the power to keep Tennyson at bay and, since O’Reilly can’t allow Tennyson to walk him down for 12 rounds, there will be times when he has to stand and trade. He can punch, but with only six stoppage wins on his record, can he keep menacing Tennyson off him?
Tennyson has always been a brutal puncher but he is a different animal at lightweight. The weight-drained, skinny kid who froze against Tevin Farmer in Boston a couple of years ago is no more and the Poleglass native is a lean, mean, fighting machine who knows exactly what he’s about at 135lbs these days.
“He’s confident and he’s here to win, it’s his big opportunity so it’s not a fight I can take lightly especially with the rewards that are at the end of it,” he said.
“I’m highly-motivated, I haven’t stopped thinking about a world title, that’s what’s always on my mind. I’ve put the work in in the camp and I’m going to put on a masterclass performance in another fan-pleasing fight.
“I come out every time and I give the fans what they want. I do what I need to do to get the win as well as that. I'm just going to go out and be me, box hard and box smart.”
He added: “This fight is a big step forward for me and it can open up some big doors, big opportunities for me next year.
“So I’m really excited for it. I know I can mix it with the top lightweights and I just want my opportunity to show what I can do. I know fine rightly that once my opportunity comes, I’ll be able to mix it with them guys, I’m very confident.”
O’Reilly is a tidy boxer but he is taking a step up in class here. Tennyson has the experience, the hunger and all the tools to force a stoppage win tonight and kick on to the world title shot he craves.
