German welterweight Deniz Ilbay plans on marking his first fight in the UK an upset win when he faces Lewis Crocker on the March 12th edition of MTK Fight Night. Ilbay (22-2, 10 KOs) challenges unbeaten Crocker (12-0, 7 KOs) at the University of Bolton Stadium next Friday, live in the US on ESPN+, and worldwide on IFL TV. Germany’s Ilbay went the distance with former world title challenger Egidijus Kavaliauskas back in 2016, and he’s warned Crocker to expect a fiery encounter.

 

Ilbay said: “I’m excited to be standing in the ring again and to be able to deliver fireworks. In the past year I have become stronger and improved on a lot of things. I’m so excited to fight in front of such a huge audience, even if they are only behind their TVs. We have had a lot of great sparring with fighters of the highest level. I had a lot of fight cancellations in 2020 due to COVID, but I stayed in fight mode because I knew it will pay off one day, and now it has. I will be pleased once I’m sitting on the airplane on the way back from the UK to Germany, because that means the fight did happen. Winning is all I want right now, that’s my main focus.”

 

Elsewhere on the March 12th MTK Fight Night, Gary Cully squares off with Viktor Kotochigov at lightweight, Isaac Lowe returns, Sahir Iqbal faces Liam Wells, Jordan Reynolds makes his professional debut against Robbie Chapman, Adam Azim is back in action, plus Carl Fail enters the paid ranks for the first time too.

 

It kicks off a huge 7 days, as on March 19th, another MTK Fight Night takes place, as Lee McGregor challenges Karim Guerfi for his European bantamweight title, and Maxi Hughes meets Paul Hyland Jr. for the vacant British lightweight title. The event on March 19th also sees Padraig McCrory face Germaine Brown in a clash of unbeaten super middleweights, Shabaz Masoud goes up against Louis Norman, Jamie Robinson fights Billy Allington, Paul Ryan makes his professional debut against Kyle Hughes, and William Hamilton returns.