• Bantamweight

Yafai may drop weight to 'sell' himself

ESPN staff
February 7, 2013
Kal Yafai is struggling to find a domestic fight at bantamweight © Getty Images
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Highly-tipped British bantamweight Kal Yafai may drop down to super-flyweight temporarily so that he will be 'easier to sell.'

Yafai has won all seven of his career fights since making his professional debut in July, his latest victory came against Gonzalo Garcia in January.

The 23-year-old has harnessed a formidable reputation for himself in that time, so much so that promoter Eddie Hearn was pleased his charge looked 'sloppy' in his last fight as he believed it might encourage other British fighters to challenge him.

However with no fights currently in the diary, Hearn, who said last month that he wanted to maintain Yafai's fight frequency of one every month, believes there are more opportunities in super-flyweight.

Dropping a weight class would mean Yafai losing three pounds from his bantamweight level, something Hearn thinks will be easy for the Midlands fighter.

"I may take him down to super-flyweight for three or four fights to try and clean up down there because he is making 8st 6lbs without even trying I know he could make 8st 3lbs," Hearn told boxingscene.com.

"The only reason I want him to be a bantamweight is from a marketing perspective, it's easier to sell a bantamweight than a super-flyweight, but I think he could drop down and win the English and British titles quite quickly at super-fly then pop back up again. We're just weighing up our options at the moment."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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