Durham boxer Tommy Ward faces Mexican Edy Valencia Mercado in Newcastle this weekend with fresh hopes of gaining a title fight.

27-year-old Ward is unbeaten in 30 fights at super bantamweight with 29 wins and one draw and won the NABA USA Super Bantam Title back in 2019.

Ward boasts an impressive unbeaten record in his professional boxing career and will be hopeful of bigger and better things to come as he looks to extend his run on Saturday at the Newcastle Eagles Arena.

There has been potential talk of setting up a vacant title fight with either Kid Galahad or James ‘Jazza’ Dickens. Ward has dropped down a weight class to the featherweight divisions.

“We’ll take any fight that’s out there so I’ll talk my management team MTK and see what they’ve got planned for me” says Ward.

“I think they had a plan to sort out a title fight this time around but things didn’t go as planned so we’ll see how it goes.

“It’s one step forward to where I need to be and challenging for titles so hopefully at the end of this year or maybe next year, we’ll see what they’ve got planned for me.

“That’s a fight that I think could be made. I boxed Dickens, I’ve sparred a lot of rounds with Galahad. They’re both really good fighters, it should be a really good fight.

“I think that would be a good fight for me too. If that opportunity comes up too then I’d be happy to take it.

“We’ve been talking about moving to featherweight for quite some time, since our fight in America two years ago.

“I wanted to stay at bantamweight but my trainer, Neil (Fannon), wanted to move to featherweight.

“I hung on but I’ve probably hung on a little too long. I’m feeling good at featherweight now so we’ll see what Saturday night brings and we’ll take it from there.

“I think a good win at featherweight will put me back in a good place.”           

Despite talk of what may come for Ward, his focus is on returning to action for the first time since October last year, when he drew with Thomas Essomba.

Ward faces Mercado on the undercard to Lewis Ritson against Jeremais Ponce, with the Newcastle boxer in action in a title eliminator bout.

This time around for the Durham boxer, he won’t be fighting Mercado in front of empty seats with spectators allowed to witness the event at the Eagles Arena.

“I’m looking forward to being back out and fighting, especially in front of a home crowd” says Ward.

“I don’t really look at most of my opponents. My trainer goes through them and comes up with the tactics and I just get in there and do my thing.

“You know what you’re getting with a Mexican. They’re tough, they like to fight and you know you’re in for a hard night so I’m expecting a good fight.

“He’s very dangerous. As I say you know what you’re getting when you’re fighting these Mexicans. Some of them have done some big upsets.

“They come to fight and they come to win. They’re tough and they’re strong but I do believe my class and skill is enough to beat anybody so as long as I’m right on the night I’ll get the victory.”