KELVIN Young believes he has become an all-round better fighter since he teamed up with trainer Richard Farnan.

The Penhill super-middleweight, who weighed in for this fight at 170 pounds, makes his return to ring tonight when he goes toe-to-toe with Tomas Kugler from the Czech Republic at the Oasis Leisure Centre.

Having won the IBO intercontinental title with a points decision over Bulgarian Alexey Ribchev in December, 2014 is all set to be a big year for the 26-year-old.

And Young knows that his partnership with Farnan, which began following the knockout defeat to third round to Tony Hill in October 2012, has been good for his career.

He said: “Since the Tony Hill fight I have teamed up with Rich, he has taken me into a total, all-round better fighter.

“My fitness is up, my strength is up, my boxing ability and working gameplans, strength, speed everything that we are working on is 100 per cent better than what is was before.

“I think that has helped push me on to be a better fighter.”

While tonight’s bout with Kugler, who tipped the scales at 172lbs, is an eight-round non-title contest, Young knows that he cannot look past tonight is he is follow the path to world title glory that his team are plotting for him.

“I think that I have the edge with speed, I’m a bit more technical with my boxing, but it is his experienced.

“He has had 50 pro fights, anyone who has had 50 pro fights knows their way around the ring and I know that I’m going to have to get in there work him out and hopefully take him out.

“This is a massive year for me, I have just won the IBO intercontinental title, I have got two defences of that and then I could be in line for a crack at the main belt as long as I’m in the top 40 of the world.

“Hopefully at the end of this year, we will know where we stand on that and hopefully I’ll get a dream fight for the main belt.”

Young is excited about this fight with Kugler, who comes into the fight on the back of a third-round stoppage over Hungarian light-heavyweight Attila Szladek.

“All the hard is work is done now – I can’t wait to get in there,” he said.

“Since the day I turned pro, I made all the sacrifices then, but since I have been with Rich I have been more professional with what I have been doing - everything that I’m doing is written down.

“The food that I’m eating is all clean. From my diet to my training, strength work, we are on plan that we have set out with what we want to do in the training camp and we stick to that plan and hit every target that we need to hit.”