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This coming Saturday in Newcastle, Lewis Ritson returns to the ring to face Francesco Patera for the vacant European lightweight title, and is hoping to become the first person to stop the Belgian.
From Sky:
“Very confident, we’re going to put on another good performance on Saturday in front of the Newcastle fans and we think we can be the first person to get Patera out of there. ... I cannot see anything in his game that is going to trouble us.”
Ritson (17-0, 11 KO) is the favorite in the fight, as he’s got home field advantage and is unbeaten thus far as a professional. Patera (19-3, 7 KO) has suffered setbacks against Yvan Mendy, Sean Dodd, and Edis Tatli.
Ritson sees this fight, as he should, as another step toward the world stage. The plan, if he wins, is to make a mandatory defense against Marvin Petit (23-1-1, 11 KO), and then move up to fringe world level, as he recently put it, before looking to tackle the bigger names in the 135-pound division.