After spending three years building its brand and putting on increasingly big shows in Ireland, Conlan Boxing brings its show across the Irish Sea on Saturday night. The card, at the Olympia in Liverpool, England, will be headlined by Jack Rafferty’s fight with India’s Sabari Jaishankar and televised live on DAZN.
Rafferty (22-0, 13 KOs) is the Commonwealth junior welterweight champion, but the 28-year-old has been playing a waiting game since knocking out Lee Appleyard inside a round to win the belt last December.
Seven years into his professional career, the pieces are now beginning to fall into place. Earlier this month, the British Boxing Board of Control ordered Rafferty to box unbeaten Henry Turner for the British title recently vacated by Dalton Smith and – bizarrely for a ticket-selling champion with a crowd-pleasing style – this will be the first time that “The Demolition Man” has been featured on a major platform.
His future may be taking shape, but the opportunity to headline on DAZN was too big to turn down. With a date for his British title shot pending, Rafferty and his team decided to fight at welterweight this weekend. There is an IBO Continental title on the line in Liverpool, but Rafferty remains a 140-pound fighter and the head of Conlan Boxing, Jamie Conlan, believes Rafferty is capable of becoming one of the figureheads of the promotion’s British ambitions.
“We’re looking at this as a tip-toe into the English market and a move away from the Northern Irish market, and I think one of the best untapped fighters in England at the moment is Jack Rafferty. I think he’s TV-made. He’s got a style that can really generate the masses. We saw at the weekend, the fight between Lewis Crocker and Conah Walker, Jack Rafferty would be in fights like that every other weekend if he wanted to,” Conlan told BoxingScene.
“This guy can fight going forwards and going back. He’s strong. He’s smart. He’s got good boxing ability and a good team and good knowledgeable people around him with his coach, Steve Maylett. So this is why we came. It was because of Jack Rafferty.”
Rafferty will take a few hundred fans across the M62 from his home in Shaw, just outside of Manchester, but Conlan wisely sought out a location with some available big ticket sellers for his first foray into England. Nonetheless, Rafferty remains the star of the show, and Conlan is positive that fans seeing him in action for the first time will see exactly the same qualities that he does.
“Why Liverpool? We have good relationships with people like Tom Stalker and Paul Smith. We asked around about building a card and identified Steve Clarke [3-0, 1 KO] as someone we wanted to get on the show. I’ve been impressed with him on the Matchroom shows I’ve seen him on, and the Smiths really want to get behind him and push him this year, and we want to get behind that, too. We’ve got Jazza Dickens [32-5 , 12 KOs] on, too, who’s rebuilding his career.
“It was a no-brainer to go to Liverpool and a no-brainer to go with Jack Rafferty. Trying to get an opponent was tough. Initially we were looking at 140 pounds or 147 pounds. We decided on 147 pounds just to be safe and see what we could get. I’m just excited to get on board and get behind him and start pushing shows with the likes of Jack Rafferty.
“I really see something there. He’s a likeable kid from a good family. His opponent will come to fight and will play to what we’re looking for. It’ll be an entertaining fight while it lasts. Jack is probably the diamond in the rough on the U.K. boxing scene.”
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