Jamie McDonnell will now
face Darwin Zamora in his IBF bantamweight world title eliminator
on Saturday night (October 20), replacing Vusi Malinga who was
forced to withdraw after a suffering an injury in
sparring.
Nicaraguan Zamora is the current
WBA Fedecentro super flyweight champion and the 24 year old carries
a 21 win record from 29 fights with 18 wins by KO.
McDonnell and Zamora meet as the
chief support bout to Kell Brook's own IBF welterweight World title
eliminator against Hector Saldivia, and the Doncaster man insists
the change of opponent will not affect his focus on the biggest
fight of his career.
"Malinga is a southpaw and Zamora
is a southpaw," said McDonnell. "For this camp I had trained for a
southpaw and, even though it wouldn't have been a problem to get an
orthodox opponent, a southpaw is what we have been working towards.
I have been sparring with lots of southpaw lads from the gym.
"Since the last fight I have just
been ticking over in the gym. I would have liked to have been in
the ring in that time. Personally, I like to have three or four
weeks out and then get back into the gym, hitting it hard and
preparing for the next fight but that hasn't been the case and I
had more time out than I would have thought. I enjoyed some time
off but as soon as I got the call about this fight I pulled my
finger out and knuckled down."
15/10/2012 13:46:05