Michael McKinson says he is ready to announce himself as the best welterweight in the UK, when he takes on Chris Kongo for the WBO Global Welterweight title. The contest is featured on the the Povetkin vs Whyte 2 card taking place at the Europa Point Sports Complex in Gibraltar on Saturday March 27 (start time here).
Boxing fans can watch Povetkin vs Whyte 2 live on Sky Sports Box Office in the UK, and live stream on DAZN in the US, Australia and the rest of the world (except the UK and Ireland).
Portsmouth’s McKinson has won all nineteen of his professional contests, with two of those wins coming via knockout, and the 26-year-old prospect has picked up the WBC Youth World, WBC International Silver and WBO European Welterweight Titles in an impressive run.
Kongo comes into this weekend’s battle of the unbeaten Welterweights coming off the back of a breakout win over Luther Clay at Fight Camp lust summer, but ‘The Problem’ believes he is a level above Bracknell’s Clay and is determined to prove it in ‘The Rumble On The Rock’.
“I found out recently that maybe he wanted to fight me a couple of years ago,” said Michael McKinson. “I must have had a Title fight lined up. I’ve been in some decent level fights for a good few years now whereas he hasn’t. He had a tough time getting fights. I’ve been in quite a few Title fights now. He was very inactive and very frustrated for a while.
“I always want to fight the guys that have a big platform and the guys that have a lot of hype around them. I want to prove myself as the best Welterweight in the UK. I’ve been calling for big fights for quite a while. After my last fight, the one name that I called out in my post fight interview was Chris. Then we got on somebody’s Instagram live and there was a bit of back and forth.
“It has all been respectful to be fair. I knew that Chris would fight me. I’ve been wanting a big fight for a while and nothing really materialised until my manager Lee Eaton from MTK called me and asked me if I’d fight Chris in six weeks. I said definitely. The three extra weeks because of the delay have just been a bonus.”
Michael McKinson: He is in with a different kettle of fish this time
“I’ve started from the very bottom. I’m from a small fighting city really, Portsmouth. I’ve had to do things the hard way. I’ve been the B side many times before. I’ve fought for no money; I’ve come up the hard way with little publicity. I wasn’t a top amateur which didn’t help me when I first turned pro.
“You’ve got two hungry ambitious confident lads, unbeaten lads coming to the ring and fighting each other. It’s great for the boxing public. I was impressed that he got Luther Clay out of there and stopped him. I’ve sparred with Luther Clay a lot in the past. He’s in with a different kettle of fish this time. He will notice that very early.”
Alexander Povetkin and Dillian Whyte meet in the 12-round rematch with the interim WBC heavyweight title on the line. The full card can be found here.
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