British champion Lee Haskins is favourite to land the super-flyweight Prizefighter title on Wednesday night.
Super-flyweights set to shine
Bookmakers are backing current British super-flyweight champion Lee Haskins to conquer the weight class's first ever Prizefighter tournament on Wednesday night.
Haskins, who also captured the WBA intercontinental bantamweight title in July, has been installed as
5/2 favourite and will be one of eight fighters who will look to make their mark at the inaugural Prizefighter Super-Flyweight tournament from Liverpool Olympia - three of whom are from the Merseyside area.
The 27-year-old Bristolian will hope his success over 12 rounds translates into the shorter Prizefighter format but will no doubt use former British champion Gary Sykes as a cautionary tale.
Sykes, who held the British super-featherweight title at the time, was knocked out within a minute by Gary Buckland at the semi-final stage in November 2010. Last month, Buckland confirmed his dominance by capturing Sykes' title.
Haskins will be looking for a favourable first round draw to kick-start his tournament, but whether it even exists is debatable.
Don Broadhurst will be hoping for redemption after being beaten by Haskins in 2007 for the Commonwealth super-flyweight title, while another searching for redemption is 29-year-old Usman Ahmed.
Egregious
Ahmed became a national laughing stock after his first round knockout by Ashley Sexton after Ahmed's exuberant, energising and egregious five minute ring entrance - he'll hope to last longer this time, although the bookmakers aren't convinced; he's bottom of Sky Bet's outright market at
25/1.
Undefeated English bantamweight champion Craig Lyon, local lad Mike Robinson and three young, promising undefeated fighters (Ryan Farrag, Nathan Reeve and Terry Broadbent) make up the rest of the field.
But it's Lee Haskins who gains favouritism with online bookmaker Sky Bet making him 5/2, while Craig Lyon is
7/2 and Mike Robinson - who fought Ashley Sexton on the Haye/Klitschko undercard in Hamburg - is
4/1.
Of the three fighters aged 23 or lower in the competition, Farrag would represent the biggest underdog story given he used to live a short walk away from Liverpool Olympia; he's
8/1, while 21-year-old Reeve and 22-year-old Broadbent are
12/1 and
18/1 respectively.
The last instalment of Prizefighter - only the second ever light-middleweight event - saw a reserve take the title for the first time. Robert Lloyd-Taylor, who replaced a fallen JJ Bird just moments before the live draw, beat Nick Quigley in the final to make history. Sky Bet make it
20/1 history repeats itself and a reserve emerges victorious in the super-flyweight division.
