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Local boxers in Arena bouts

5/ 9/2008

NORTH Manchester will be well represented on the Amir Khan headliner bill at the MEN Arena on Saturday night.

Former Fox amateur Anthony Crolla, now trained by Anthony Farnell, will be up against Crawley's Robin Deakin in a super-featherweight bout.

This will be Crolla's fourth fight of the year, and he will be looking to bounce back from the only defeat of his nine-fight pro career, having lost on points to Youssef Al Hamidi at the Bolton Arena in April.

Deakin will not be taken lightly, although his record suggests he could be a chopping-block boxer.

He made a winning debut in October 2006, but since then he has lost 10 fights, eight of them on points.

Steven Bell, also out of the Farnell camp, faces a challenge from Anthony Hanna at super-featherweight level

Bell has won 14 of 17 his pro fights. Hanna has been in 100 scraps but won only 21 of them, seven by knockouts.

Tony Bellew, a Liverpool lad trained by Anthony Farnell, goes into a cruiserweight contest against Hastings Rasani, a fighter born in Zimbabwe but now based in Birmingham.

Unbeaten Ancoats fighter Denton Vassell, trained by Bob Shannon, fights at welterweight level against Jimmy Beech of Walsall.

Beech has more fights under his belt than Vassell, but his record is not that impressive, while Vassell is unbeaten in seven pro fights, four of them won by knockouts.

Also in action will be Matthew Hall of the Collyhurst and Moston Academy.

Hall, with a record of 18 wins - seven of them by knockouts, and only one defeat, meets Taz Jones of Abercynon in a light-middleweight bout.

Jones has had 18 fights and won 11 of them, three having ended in draws.

In June he achieved a first-round stoppage over Carl Drake to lift an international masters title.

But in his previous fight he was knocked out in the seventh round by Tony Doherty who won the Celtic title.

Hall was last in the ring in March when he stopped Kerry Hope in the eighth round of a contest in Cardiff.

The top of the bill fight will see Amir Khan up against Breidis Prescott with the WBO Intercontinental title at stake.