PROMOTER Mark Neilson says professional boxing will be back with a bang as he announces the return of Neilson Boxing’s Fight Town series.

Neilson’s next show, which will feature a host of homegrown talent including Swindon’s former Commonwealth champion Luke Watkins, will take place on Saturday 18th September at the MECA.

The event will be the first of its kind for well over a year after Covid-19 curtailed Neilson Boxing’s last proposed show back in April 2020.

In addition to Watkins, who has a record of 14-2, the show features talent from further afield in the south west, such as Oxford’s Brad Townsend, Somerset’s Ryan Wheeler and son of former world champion Lee Haskins, Anton, who is unbeaten since becoming a professional in 2019.

Reflecting on the card and the return to action, Neilson can’t wait to get underway.

“We are delighted to be back and we are back with a bang,” said the Swindon promoter, who also revealed a plethora of Wiltshire fighters who are set to star in September.

“The line-up is great, we have Luke Watkins who is a top 10 ranked cruiserweight and he will be fighting for some titles soon.

“We have a couple of debuts, which is always good. People might not have heard of these but we have a young lady called Megan Redstall who is fighting out of Mark Kent’s gym Contender in Melksham and we also have Connor Gray from Liam Lathbury’s Emerald set up in Chippenham too.

“Johnny Ward will be on the show. He looks good, he sounds good and he’s a really hard-hitting super-middleweight, who has changed his coaching set up so it’s exciting to see what he will bring to the table.”

Over recent years Neilson Boxing have enjoyed great success with their shows attracting large crowds at both the MECA and Oasis Leisure Centre in Swindon.

Despite tickets only just going on sale, Neilson says he has been encouraged by the uptake so far and is looking forward to hosting another live show.

“Not only are we back, but we are back at the MECA too which is a great small hall venue for boxing and Swindon fight fans are chomping at the bit,” he added.

“Hopefully we will lift the roof off the place. We have only just started selling tickets and they’re already going quite quickly online, so looks like it’s going to be a sell-out.

“A standard ticket is £40, this is going to be a card with 10 great fights and a real quality operator and hometown hero in Luke Watkins as main event. In addition to that we also have a Southern Area title final eliminator as chief support to Luke, so it makes for a great night out.”

Tickets are available to buy at www.neilsonboxing.co.uk.