Boxing: Tommy Frank is "on the verge of something big" says Sheffield trainer Glyn Rhodes

Frank takes on Mexican Martin Tecuapetla at Ponds Forge Arena with the vacant IBO Inter-Continental Flyweight strap up for grabs.

Ahead of the bout, Rhodes believes Frank is slowly but surely maturing into a world-level operator.

In his last fight, Frank edged a split-decision verdict over Thailand’s Aran Dipaen but admitted afterwards that he was disappointed at his performance.

“I wasn’t disappointed, not at all,” said Rhodes.

“He did a hard 12 rounds, which a fighter needs to know he can do.

"If he’s going to be stepping up in his class then he needs to know he can do it against a kid that could have very easily have been a banana skin.

"Dipaen was tough as old boots, and we found out afterwards he’d had loads of Muay Thai bouts.

"It was a mature performance from Tommy, and he was only disappointed because he expected to get the kid out of there, and that doesn’t always happen.

“I was actually pleased that Tommy hit him with some good shots and he didn’t go anywhere, and he caused Tommy some headaches.

"Fighters get disappointed because they want to be ‘crash, bang, wallop’ for the fans, but Tommy stuck to his job and I was more than pleased with him.

"He is on the verge of something big, and we know now he can do a hard 12 rounds."

Mexican native Tecuapetla has lost 11 of 30 outings but has only been stopped twice.

The 29-year-old also went the distance with former world flyweight champion, Cristofer Rosales, as recently as 2017.

Rhodes added: "You can’t look at his record and think ‘he’s got a lot of losses’, because he’s also got all that ring experience.

"“He’s Mexican too, and we know what they’re like.

"It has all the ingredients of a great fight for the fans.

"It’s going to be a great night and fingers crossed we get the result we want before moving onto bigger and better things next year.”