PADDY Fitzpatrick wants Luke Watkins to enjoy his Wembley Arena debut tomorrow night.

The 24-year-old cruiserweight makes his first outing in the paid ranks on the undercard of his manager George Groves’ European super-middleweight title fight against Christopher Rebrasse.

Watkins, who had 13 fights as an amateur as a super-heavyweight, will face David Vicena a one-time opponent of current IBF world cruiserweight champion Yoan Pablo Hernandez in the opening bout of the night in London.

Although there is the opportunity for Watkins to head out to Germany next Saturday to fight on the undercard of Arthur Abrahams’ WBO world super-middleweight title defence against reigning British champion Paul Smith, both Watkins and Fitzpatrick know that there focus must stay on Vicena.

“I want Duke to absorb as much as he can on Saturday night,” Fitzpatrick told the Advertiser. “He is in a six-round fight and I want him to box pretty much all, if not all, of them.”

Watkins has been sparring Groves, Nathan Cleverly, the former WBO world light-heavyweight champion and current cruiserweight contender as well as the tough and durable super-middleweight Patrick Mendy.

“Duke has been sparring at a high level for the last couple of years. He sparred with David Haye and he’s done it with (middleweight) Andy Lee,” Fitzpatrick said.

“He has of course been working with George and for this camp he has been sparring with Nathan Cleverly.

“So physically I know that Duke is prepared, what we don’t know, and we won’t know until the night is how he is emotionally. But judging how he has been I’m confident he will be fine.”

Fitzpatrick is also looking forward to seeing Groves step back into the ring for the first time since his defeat to Carl Froch at the end of May.

The 26-year-old has spent time out in California at Big Bear mountain training for this fight, which could lead to a potential WBC world title opportunity, where he has been sparring with pound-for-pound star Gennady Golovkin.

“George is looking good,” Fitzpatrick said. “He is well inside the weight and earlier this week he was setting personal best in his sprints.

“He has been sparring four-minute rounds with only 30 second rests with Gennady Golovkin so he is well prepared.”

More build-up to Watkins’ debut in tomorrow’s Adver and Michael Reeves reports live from Watkins’ pro debut at Wembley Arena tomorrow at swindonadvertiser.co.uk/sport