Matthew Macklin 34-6 (22 KOs) will face Brian Rose 28-3-1 (8 KOs) in a crossroads fight on the undercard of the highly anticipated IBF heavyweight title fight between 2012 Olympic Gold medalist Anthony Joshua versus American Charles Martin.
Macklin aged 33 from Birmingham is on a 3 fight win streak since being stopped in round 10 by Jorge Sebastian Heiland.
Rose who was also born in Birmingham but resides in Blackpool has won his last 2 fights including an unanimous decision against Carson Jones who had previously stopped Rose in the very first round of their early 2015 bout.
Macklin has fought and lost in 3 world title challenges to Gennady Golovkin, Sergio Martinez, and Felix Sturm respectively.
Brian Rose came up short in his only World title contest when he was stopped in round 7 by Demetrius Andrade in 2014.
Both fighters have been great servants to British boxing but the loser of this fight will have nowhere else to go. The winner gets one step closer to a shot at the WBC middleweight champion as the contest is sanctioned as a eliminator for the belt currently held by Saul ‘Canelo` Alvarez.
