Murphy only focused on first leg of title double

Colm Murphy may have a huge night in Dublin against Jono Carroll to look forward to on 14 March, but his immediate focus is on claiming the vacant Commonwealth featherweight title when he takes on Tanzania’s Saleh Kassim at The Mill in Newtownabbey on Saturday.

Belfast’s ‘Posh Boy’ has been a holder of the silver version of both Commonwealth and European titles, but takes a step forward this week before a step up to super-featherweight when he faces Carroll for the vacant IBO belt on the undercard of Jazza Dickens v Anthony Cacace.

Before he can think about that, there is a job to be done on Saturday against Kassim whose record sits at a modest 12-5-2 and who is without a win outside of his homeland.

However, there are no guarantees in boxing and Murphy, perfect through 15 contests and a big favourite to triumph this week, is not taking this challenge or opportunity for granted.

“Anything can happen in boxing and it’s not like we can pull out of this great opportunity to fight for the Commonwealth because you never know what could happen between now and March,” the 25-year-old told BBC Sport NI.

“We’ve already seen a Queensberry card [‘Magnificent Seven’ headlined by heavyweights Moses Itauma and Jermaine Franklin] delayed by two months, so that is the whole point of fighting on 31 January.

“The last one [Commonwealth featherweight champion] from our parts was around 70 years ago [Billy ‘Spider’ Kelly] so this is a huge opportunity in its own right, so we believe we can win that and move on to Dublin.”

‘I will rise to occasion against Carroll’

Still, an exciting and potentially career-changing few months lie ahead as the Belfast man seeks to make 2026 the year he fully breaks through.

His previous fight resulted in an impressive and dominant display against the previously undefeated Luke Pearson to claim European silver, dropping just one round across three scorecards.

It is now time to push on and seek greater challenges, beginning with this week’s title chance and then stepping up against seasoned Dubliner Carroll who he and his team feel they are catching at the right time.

“I’m showing my intentions that I’m committed to this path and I’m going for it,” he added.

“I know I have to rise to the occasion because I have a tough test against Jono Carroll who was in Prizefighter when I had just started boxing – a great fighter I look up to, but my team wouldn’t put me in this position if they didn’t believe in me.”