LUKE Watkins is a different fighter to the one he was 12 months ago, according to his trainer Paddy Fitzpatrick.

The unbeaten Swindon cruiserweight flew out to Belfast last night ahead of his fight with Iam Tims for the vacant Irish title.

The fight, which will be shown live on Sky Sports 2 on the undercard of Bristol’s Lee Haskins’ IBF world bantamweight defence, will be Watkins’ 11th in the paid ranks.

In his 10 wins to date, the former Bradon Forest and New College student has stopped six of his opponents, including a fourth round TKO of Jiri Svacina in April.

However, it is only in the last eight months that the Ferndale Road-based trainer has felt that Watkins was now fully executing their game plan.

“I noticed a change in Duke last November when we were getting ready for the show that fell through,” Fitzpatrick explained. “I was watching him spar a super-heavy that had come down from the army.

“He hasn’t always used the game plan that we have put in place for a fight which you could see as a plus because he makes adjustments when needed.

“He didn’t always follow the game plan because he didn’t feel confident to put himself in a position to execute it.

“Then I noticed in November that he was, he was doing a lot of things that he wasn’t doing before.

“He was putting himself inside to get his work done, before he would only work on the inside when another man would bring it to him.”

Aside from sticking to the plan that was set out for him, Fitzpatrick says that Watkins was also showing his improvements when stepping into the ring with former world cruiserweight champion Enzo Maccarinelli.

“The last time he sparred Enzo was probably a year ago, so it was nice to see the measuring stick about how far Duke come on in that year,” the trainer added.

“There have been a lot of improvements from where he was a year ago in his confidence levels and what he can do technically.

“There were shots that Enzo wasn’t able to get off that he could last year.

“I’m very happy with where he (Watkins) is. It is a fight that he is genuinely looking forward to, which excites him and that excites me.

“He been really excited every day in the gym. He was always a consummate professional, but he is excited.”