He has packed away his school books and is now out to school his opponent as Tamworth middleweight boxer Billy McNaughton returns to the ring on the undercard of stable mate Brendan Saunders.
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The 18-year old McNaughton, who is known as ‘The Viper’, will strap up and step up for his second professional fight in Sydney on Sunday.
McNaughton will fight on the undercard to the Australian Lightweight Title fight featuring Saunders taking on dangerous Sydneysider Issaka Issah for the vacant title.
A former National Golden Gloves Amateur champion, McNaughton has just completed his HSC at McCarthy Catholic College, and fights out of the Tamworth PCYC under the watchful eye of trainer Paul Saunders.
He’ll make his return to the ring against experienced and undefeated campaigner Nick Ariel.
Ariel, who is trained out of the Mundine Gym in Redfern is a cross code fighter who has won numerous titles as a professional Kick Boxer and Muay Thai fighter and is currently undefeated as a professional boxer.
“Billy trains his back side off and is ultra fit and very strong and has had a trouble free training camp for this fight which I class as a step up for him against a very tough opponent,” Saunders said.
“He is more than ready and 100% focused on getting the job done and ending 2016 undefeated as a pro.”
McNaughton made his professional debut in October against the experienced Jesse Saavedra, and came away with a first round knockout win.
“I thought Billy would win a comfortable decision against Saavedra over the four x three minute round distance but was on his game and landed a solid combination late in the first round that sent his opponent to the canvas and his corner threw the towel in before the referee could count him out,” Saunders said.
He has had excellent sparring in preparation for his second professional fight getting plenty of rounds in with the current WBC Asia Continental Middleweight Champ Wade Ryan from Gunnedah, who fought for the Australian Middleweight Title recently, as well as current IBO Oceania Lightweight Champ (Brendan) Saunders.
Saunders was scheduled to defend his IBO title against Current WBF Lightweight Champ Nort Beauchamp in a regional title unification bout in New Zealand on November 26, however, Beauchamp was forced to pull out of the fight with a hand injury. Upon hearing the news fight promoter Paul Nasari offered Brendan a shot at the vacant Australian Lightweight Title.
“I was almost at the end of a 10 week training camp for the Beauchamp fight so the timing was perfect,” Saunders said.
