Jason out to be king of England

He is the heavy favourite to become English champion this weekend and expects to win himself but Jason Cunningham insists he will not underestimate opponent Ashley Lane.

Woodlands bantamweight Cunningham faces Lane for the vacant English title at the Dome on Saturday night.

And he is expecting his Northampton foe to bring his very best.

“This will be his world title fight so I’m expecting Ashley Lane to be better than he’s ever been before,” Cunningham told the Free Press.

“He’s had 12 weeks notice so he’ll be in the best shape he can be. But so am I.

“I’ve got to go in there, stick to the game plan, don’t get caught up in anything stupid and I should have enough to get the job done and become a two time English champion.”

The 26-year-old former ABA champion has brought a nutritionist into his team to prepare for fights.

And he says he has felt the benefit in his first camp.

Cunningham said: “We’ve started working with a nutritionist, Andy Hayes, and that’s made a massive difference.

“I’ve always made the weight fairly easily but I feel so much stronger.

“I’m bang where I need to be nice and early and I’m feeling great.

“I expect it’ll make a big difference for me when I get in the ring.”

Cunningham’s last outing saw him beaten by the highly-rated Kal Yafai in a British super flyweight title fight.

Convincingly out-pointed, Cunningham admits it was a difficult night.

He said: “I think the big thing I learned from that fight is that I’m much better off at bantamweight.

“And that I can take a pounding for 12 rounds.

“Yafai is a quality fighter. We’ll see how good he is next week in his world title eliminator.

“I went in there and stuck to a game plan. It wasn’t good enough on the night but we move on.

“I want a British title and I’ll keep going for it.”

Opponent Lane won the Midlands Area bantamweight title in his last fight but has a patchy record of 6-6-2.

Also on the bill, Hyde Park’s Aston Jolly will contest the vacant Central Area middleweight title against Barnsley’s Matthew Mallin.

Bradford’s Darren Tetley faces Stevie Williams in Central Area welterweight title fight.

Balby’s Lewis Booth faces his third pro fight against Harvey Helmsley while Harworth’s Daniel Slaney returns to the ring for the first time in almost three years.