GARY SYKES vs ANTHONY CROLLA

Former English amateur champions Gary Sykes and Anthony Crolla meet in an evenly matched 10-rounder on the Sky Sports show on Friday.

The fight is an eliminator for the right to box for the British super featherweight title. Sykes is unbeaten, with 11 wins in a row. Crolla has lost just once in 14 bouts, a debatable points defeat that he avenged with a widely scored win in a rematch.

Sykes, a 25-year-old from Dewsbury, Yorkshire, was the English national ABA featherweight champion in 2005, while Crolla, 22, from Manchester, won the lightweight title.

Reports suggest that these are busy fighters with good hand speed and although neither is considered a very hard hitter each of them has shown the ability to hurt an opponent with the left hook to the body. Sykes has never been past six rounds while Crolla has been eight rounds once. Each has been meeting the same standard of journeyman-type opposition.

Sykes’s best win was his points victory over Harry Ramogoadi, who pulled off an upset over Derry Matthews in his last fight. Crolla’s toughest opposition was provided by a durable, cagey fighter named Youssef Al Hamidi, with one win each. Crolla, on a night when he didn’t box well, lost a close and arguable decision to Al Hamidi in April 2008, but he beat him clearly in the return bout.

The British fight fraternity is expecting a close, highly competitive fight as each man seeks to move to the next level. My lean is towards Sykes, if only because he has yet to lose. The punches will be flying in a contest that looks likely to go the full 10 rounds, and the crowd and TV viewers are in for a treat. Whoever wins, I would think that the margin will be as tight as can be.