Purdy Aims to End the Year On a High

Posted by Michael Payne on 11.18.2009

Lee “Lights Out” Purdy will make the first defense of his Southern Area Welterweight title on November 28th in the chief support bout of Darren Barker and Wayne Elcock’s British middleweight title show down at the Brentwood centre.

The Colchester fighter is defending his title against Mark Douglas and the event will be available to British fight fans on ITV4. The last time Purdy fought at the Brentwood Centre he lost his unbeaten record to Peter McDonagh in a ten round thriller for the Southern Area Light Welterweight title.

Purdy was obviously unhappy loosing his undefeated record but remained optimistic, "Obviously it's very difficult when you lose you're unbeaten record but I knew it was the scales that beat me that night and not McDonagh. Making 10 stone was just taking too much out of me and I had no strength or power in there so I knew I had to move up to welterweight."

Since moving up to Welterweight things have gone from strength to strength for Purdy and he has since avenged his loss to McDonagh. It was a completely different affair this time around and Purdy took a comfortable point win.

"I feel so much better now up at welterweight," said Purdy. "The difference between my first fight with McDonagh and the second was like night and day. In the first fight I didn't have the power or strength to hurt him and he was able to stand right in front of me for the whole fight but in the rematch it was completely different. I hurt him in every round and he could definitely feel the extra power. He knew he couldn't just stand there and trade in the second fight because I was hurting him. It was great to reverse that defeat and I can move on with my career now."

Purdy no wants to move onwards and upwards with his career and the first aim is to end the year on a high by defending his title against Douglas. He then aims to make a couple of defences then move forward to English, British and Commonwealth honours. Although he does have ambitions beyond this fight Purdy insists he is not taking anything for granted saying "I'm certainly not taking him lightly. I haven't seen much of Douglas but from what I've heard he's a very tough guy who comes to fight. That will suit me because I like a tear up as well so I think it should make for an exciting fight."

Commonwealth Champ Darren Barker's bid to win the British Middleweight title against Wayne Elcock tops the bill at the Brentwood Centre while the undercard also features Waltham Abbey super middleweight Daniel "Mr. Slick" Cadman, exciting light middleweight Yassine El Maachi and unbeaten prospects Bradley Evans, Bobby Ward, Phill Fury and Steve Barnes.

Fans interested in attending can visit www.ticketline.co.uk. Tickets are priced at £30 and £80.