THE heavyweight blockbuster in Saudi Arabia the was set for this week may have been postponed, but fans can get their fix closer to home this week at the Europa Hotel where Conor Quinn defends his Commonwealth Silver flyweight title against Jemsi Kibazange (live on TG4 YouTube).

West Belfast’s ‘Magnificent’ rising star has just come off a superb year that saw him land Eddie Shaw Trophy for Boxer of the Year from the NI Branch of the British Boxing Board of Control to compliment his double title success in October when he also claimed the vacant Celtic start at the expense of Chris Liddell.

Now with a record of 8-0-1, the former Clonard amateur is on the cusp of a major breakthrough and maintaining his undefeated record against Tanzania’s Kibazange (20-7-3) on Saturday would keep him on the path towards bigger opportunities.

Next weekend, Connor Butler and Jay Harris will battle it out in Liverpool with the full Commonwealth, plus European and British honours up for grabs.

Ranked number six in Europe by the EBU, Quinn is not far away from a crack at continental honours. That brings confidence, but the mild-mannered 25-year-old is not getting ahead of himself either ahead of this week’s test.

Kibazange has fought outside of his homeland just four times previously, losing on each occasion, so the objective for Quinn is to use the familiar surroundings to his benefit and is expecting a decent test that can help him take another step forward.

“He’s a good guy with 20 wins and half of them by way of knockout, so he is a dangerous enough opponent,” he noted.

“I want to keep going up (in levels) now instead of up and down. 

“Last time was a good step up against Chris Liddell and I’m expecting the same here - a good, tough fight.”

An first outing of the year in February is exactly what Quinn has desired as he is in no mood to have significant gaps between fights at this stage.

His win over Liddell was a significant milestone as two belts were captured, so his desire is to keep the ball rolling and feeding off the buzz that is building around him.

A look around the gym and he has Padraig McCrory for inspiration. ‘The Hammer’ is getting ready to jet out to Orlando to trade leather with Edgar Berlanga in a main event on a Matchroom card and his rise from small hall to main attraction on DAZN is a patch Quinn would dearly love to follow.

“I always like to get out at the start of February or mid-February,” Quinn confirmed.

“That means you have a bit of motivation over Christmas to stay in the gym and off the bad food.

“People would say ‘I’m sure you’d love a break over Christmas’ and some would, but I like to be in the gym and training away.

“It’s a short career, so when you get that momentum you want to keep going. You only have to look around the gym at the like’s of ‘Pody’ (McCrory) and even Lewis (Crocker) - they got that momentum behind them, took it and ran with it, so that’s exactly what I want to do.”

The ‘Fists of Fury’ card also includes Belfast featherweight, Connor Kerr, who takes on Bradford’s Jake Pollard over six rounds, while Shannon’s David Ryan is in six-round light-welterweight action.

Remaining tickets are available through eventbrite