Undefeated Aberdeen welterweight Dean Sutherland is ready to make years of sacrifice pay off by securing the vacant WBC International Silver title on home soil.
The 23-year-old southpaw will face Italian Michele Esposito in a title showdown at the Beach Ballroom on Friday that will be broadcast live on Fightzone.
Boasting a professional return of 11 wins from 11 contests, Sutherland, aka ‘Deadly’, aims to maintain that flawless record.
In dedicating his life to the pursuit of sporting excellence, Sutherland trains up to six hours per day while also holding down a full-time job.
Sutherland believes his gruelling training regime and dedication will pay off and is confident Esposito will be ‘chasing shadows’ during the title clash.
He said: “All the years of sacrifice have built up to this.
“All the investments and choices I made have got me to the position where I am fighting for a title in Aberdeen.
“I am in the gym between three to six hours every day and also have a full-time job. I also have a girlfriend and family that I want to see and spent time with as well.
“People don’t see all the hard work and sacrifice that goes into this.
“They just see the performance that goes on under the bright nights.
“I aim to put in a performance so that I walk away with that belt.
“This is just the start for me.
“Everything is going in the right direction in my career and it is going to be a long journey.”
𝙁𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙠 𝙞𝙣 𝘼𝙗𝙚𝙧𝙙𝙚𝙚𝙣 🏴
All the action live this Friday on Fightzone 👊🏻
Subscribe 📲 https://t.co/tmxgOQveKQ #𝙅𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙍𝙚𝙫𝙤𝙡𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 #sutherlandesposito pic.twitter.com/03YF8q5az4
— Fightzone (@fightzonetv) November 9, 2021
‘He will be chasing shadows all night’
Sutherland’s career is on a rapid upwards trajectory having secured the WBO Youth welterweight title in July with a seventh round stoppage of Mexican Jose Antonio Delgado Velazquez in Hamilton in July.
In the bid to secure back-to-back belts Sutherland will face former Italian welterweight champion Esposito, 35, who has a professional record of 18 wins (four KO), four losses and one draw.
Esposito has never been stopped and will face Sutherland on the back of a seven-fight winning steak dating back to 2018.
Sutherland has studied footage of the Italian, known as ‘The Machine Gun’, and is confident of triumphing to secure the title.
He said: “I’m expecting someone who is going to be hands tight coming forward.
“I have seen a couple of clips of Esposito and he looks like a fit, durable guy that likes to throw lots of punches and wear his opponents down.
“From a boxing point of view, though, he is not even anywhere near my level.
“I will stick to a very simple game plan to outbox him and he will be chasing shadows all night.
“I can’t see it going any other way.”
Flawless training camp for title fight
Sutherland will face Esposito having progressed through a ‘phenomenal’ training camp in preparation for the title fight.
It is in stark contrast to the build up to the fight against Velazquez as Sutherland suffered suffered two ligament Grade 1 tears in a foot weeks before the bout.
He said: “Training has been phenomenal this time and I haven’t had any injuries in the build up to this one thankfully.
“Training-wise I flew through it and got brilliant results in the strength and conditioning, speed, pad work and sparring.
“My boss has been very good to give me every Monday and Friday off for the last three weeks. I had all this week off in preparation for the fight as well to make sure everything was right.
“It is going to be an exciting night.”
No guessing here, It’s just all testing🔥
Working with Andrew Usher & Evolved Performance has took my physical ability to the next level with conditioning & nutrition💪🏼
On the 12th of November, I will produce another brilliant destructive performance💣 pic.twitter.com/xCgLdRhsG3
— Dean Sutherland (@Deano_Suth) October 9, 2021
Emotional home city return
Aberdeen’s Sutherland will be fighting in his home city for the first time in two years.
His last bout in the Granite City was a convincing points defeat of Edvinas Puplauskas at the Hilton Treetops on November 16, 2019.
He said: “This is the sort of fight that works well for me in front of a home crowd.
“It’s going to be an entertaining fight and not a chess match or anything like that.
“It will be someone trying to take the other fighter’s head off and the other one trying to work out how not to get hit.
“It will be the bull and the matador – that’s the best way to describe it”
Sutherland’s relentless boxing ascent
A former multiple-weight world kickboxing champion, Sutherland switched disciplines in 2018.
Within a year he had secured his first professional title in defeating Keane McMahon to lift the BUI Celtic welterweight belt in Aberdeen on May 4 2019.
Sutherland said: “I am always learning not just about myself but about nutrition, body performance, mentality – everything to do with the fight game.
“I am constantly learning every single day”
The boxing card for the Beach Ballrooom
- Dean Sutherland (11,0,0) v Michele Esposito (18,4,1) – welterweight
Vacant World Boxing Council International Silver Welter Title
- Billy Stuart (10,1,0) v Raymond Commey (19,15,1) – super bantamweight
- Callen McAauley (7,0,0) v Kris Pilkington (2,10,1) – super lightweight
- Luca Micheletti (3,0,0) v Yailton Neves (4,15,0) – super middleweight
- Craig Morgan (7,0,0) v Michael Horabin (2,23,0) – super featherweight.