LUKE Watkins may be routinely expected to clock up win number nine tomorrow night, but his trainer Paddy Fitzpatrick wants his boxer to show no signs of complacency.

The unbeaten cruiserweight prospect goes in against Dmitrij Kalinovskij at the York Hall, with the Lithuanian beginning life in the squared circle as a 145lb welterweight six years ago.

But having gone up through the weights, even dipping his toes into the heavyweight division, Kalinovskij has become more difficult to beat the bigger he has got.

Having suffered 22 defeats in his 33-fight career to date, the 24-year-old has been stopped eight times – including a first round TKO by a debuting Eamonn O’Kane, the Northern Irish middleweight who saw out his career being trained by Fitzpatrick before retiring earlier this year.

“Eamonn showed me the DVD of that fight and he jumped all over from start to finish,” Fitzpatrick told the Advertiser.

“That is not necessarily the way we will go on Saturday night. I want Duke to work on the inside a lot more, that is what I want to see.

“The guy Duke is fighting hasn’t been stopped since moving up to cruiserweight, the only footage you can see of him is as a middleweight.

“In two to three fights time, I want Duke to be ready to for the top two or three cruiserweights in Britain – excluding Ovill McKenzie and Tony Bellew as they are at world level.”

But the Ferndale Road trainer must first guide light-heavyweight Sam Smith through his third pro contest in what is set to be the final one of his apprenticeship.

The 23-year-old, who has won both his fights to date, faces Hungarian David Sipos over four rounds.

“I’m not a fan of these four-round fights, but there are 19 fights on the show and that was all that was available,” said the Irish trainer, who oversaw another of his light-heavyweight’s David Bailey to a points win in Bristol last weekend.

“But Sniper has said to me that he wants this to be his last fight against so-called journeymen.

“He wants to be fighting in meaningful fights, he knows that the winner of Jack Morris-Kelvin Young (fighting on the same bill) will more than likely have to defend the Southern Area title against Joel McIntyre.

“So he wants the loser, if that is Jack Morris then he wants him, if that is Kelvin, then that would be a great fight to have in Swindon.”