ZACH THE WHACK STRIKES AGAIN

By Frank Warren

ZACH PARKER ADDED his own big bang to firework weekend with a blistering display of power and precision in Birmingham on Saturday night.

Marcus Morrison had not been stopped before and packs a punch of his own, but once Zach started to land to the body the outcome became inevitable. Don’t forget it was only in May of this year that Marcus jumped in with Chris Eubank jr and was largely untroubled for 10 rounds.

Swashbuckling super middleweight Zach is the new star of the division, no doubt about it, plus he is in a handy position for when it comes to taking the next big step.

He holds the No.1 spot with the WBO and, whilst the dust settles on the World Title situation, we will keep our man busy. Trust me, two or three good fights will surely narrow the odds on him making a successful tilt for world honours.

Watching Canelo again on BT Sport Box Office in the early hours of Sunday morning, I have to admit that I was mightily impressed. I don’t think there’s a promoter on this earth who would say with complete confidence their man could beat Alvarez on his current form, but Zach Parker has time on his side and will be ready and waiting should the chance arise.

Everyone will be waiting on Canelo to make his next move now. Will he take on further challenges at super middleweight against the likes of David Benevidez or Jamall Charlo – or both – or will he opt to jump up and test the waters at light heavyweight?

What I do know is that none of the governing bodies will be in a rush to force the issue or think about removing his titles from him. The lucrative nature of Canelo fights will see to that.

Which gives us the time to put Zach in as strong a position as possible and see to it that the timing is right for his career breakthrough. We intend to keep him as busy as possible over the coming months and we’ll be looking for more explosive performances to keep the BT Sport viewers entertained.

While Zach is rightly reaching for the stars, middleweight Nathan Heaney and his merry band are marching towards domestic success and he overcame an awkward opponent to get another stoppage on Saturday.

You just can’t help but warm to Nathan and want him to succeed. I admire his total honesty and his acknowledgement of where he is at. I know many boxers who would be banging on about totally unrealistic world title shots if they had a following like Nathan – probably the same ones who are openly catty over his prospects.

Nathan knows he is not the finished article and is a work in progress. He openly says his ultimate goal is to win the British title and I so much want him to get there and beyond. If he wins the British, he can push towards the European because, while he is no youngster, he is fresh as a daisy.

One thing is for sure, it is going to be an enjoyable journey and the thousands who are flocking to his fights couldn’t be getting behind a nicer fella.

Sticking with the middleweights, Denzel Bentley did what he had to do to get himself back in the swing of things against Sam Evans and there is no reason why both he and Nathan won’t be in the British title frame before too long.

They might even end up fighting each other for the belt, who knows!

I was pleased to see Ryan Garner get eight rounds under his belt against a strong opponent in Pedro Gomes. Taking on a first southpaw opponent is an exercise never designed to make you look good, so I am happy Ryan now has this experience under his belt in what was also his first over the distance.

There are some good fights out there for Ryan at super featherweight and we are fast closing in on the time when we will really see if he has got what it takes to convert obvious potential into prizes.

Another who continues to demonstrate that he is probably more than ready is Andrew Cain, the devilish bantam/super bantam from Liverpool. He saw off a capable Mexican on Saturday night to make it seven KOs from his eight fights as a pro and his opponent – Uriel Lopez – lasted longer in the ring with Emanuel Navarrete in his fight before last, so Andrew must be on the right track.

There are some smashing fights in the pipeline for Andrew and, although it was a pity that a bout of Covid ruled out an October fight with Liam Davies, that fight is still there for next year along with a good few other bangers for the winner.

Congratulations to Willo Hayden, Dylan Moran, Macaulay Owen and the debut-making Raheem Muhammad for their victories elsewhere on the card and I look forward to seeing more of them all in the months ahead.

On Friday we have the second installment of our Prospect Series live on BT Sport, headed up by the big fellas in David Adeleye and George Fox and supported by a host of our other young talents.

Be sure to tune in and get a glimpse of the prospects who will be climbing up the cards in the forthcoming months and years.

THE RECENT DOCUMENTARY on my sporting life, Make It of Die Trying – the Frank Warren Story, has just been named Sports Documentary of the Year in the Broadcast Sports Awards and I would like to pay tribute to the director Daryl Goodrich of BT Sport, who did such a fine job in telling my story.

There is always some trepidation when it comes to opening a window to your life for public consumption and I admit I harboured some doubts over doing it, but Daryl and his team pieced it all together superbly and the feedback I received following its broadcast was overwhelmingly positive.

So congratulations to Daryl and I hope there are a good couple of episodes left in me before I call it a day.