KELVIN Young says he is confident of putting on a show when defending the title which means everything to him.

The Penhill pugilist will defend his IBO super-middleweight inter-continental strap against Cameroon-born Frenchman Francis Tchoffo at the Oasis Leisure Centre tonight.

And having won the belt with a comprehensive points victory over Bulgarian Alexey Ribchev in December, the 27-year-old is in no mood to surrender it.

“It means everything (to be defending this title),” Young told the Advertiser. “When I got the opportunity to fight for the IBO title it was originally meant to be for the international title which is four (levels) below the world title.

“As the weeks went on I went on the IBO web page and it said I was fighting for the inter-continental title.

“I thought ‘that is not right’, the inter-continental title is one below the world title so it was a massive jump up.

“Keith made a call to the IBO and they said that they had upgraded it, it has not been fought for a while so we are going to give you the opportunity to fight for that.”

But finding an opponent to make his first defence of the belt against hasn’t been easy with his manager Keith Mayo going through a list of nearly 30 names before finally securing a fight with Tchoffo on Wednesday evening.

And despite not being able to fully break down his opponent’s style in training, Young believes that he will have the skills to claim his 16th victory of his career.

“I expect him (Tchoffo) to load up with big shots and try to batter me,” Young said. “But it is a 10 round fight - whatever he brings I’m ready.

“He is very awkward, I think he will have a go, he is short and stocky and he will try and get at me during the fight.

“But we have got a big ring, I will use skills, my reach, my footwork and when the time is right I will put it on him.”

Young is well known for his stylish boxing, moving around the ring on the back foot looking to counter whatever his opponent has to throw at him.

But during this camp, he has been working on fighting off the front foot, however, with little knowledge of Tchoffo’s style Young will not go charging in.

“If I can hold the centre of the ring and push back then I will,” he said.

“It is 10 round fight, we will assess it as the fight goes on and I’m confident of putting on a very good show.”