Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Jackson England is on the cusp of an Australian three-belt world title mega fight that would shake up the country’s boxing scene.
The 28-year-old (19-3) will face unbeaten Kazakhstan southpaw Sultan Zaurbek (20-0) in a Gold Coast IBF super featherweight world title eliminator 15 months in the making.
The winner will earn mandatory status at the ideal time.
Mexico’s superstar WBO and IBF strap-holder Emanuel Navarrete will face American WBC champ O’Shaquie Foster next month in San Antonio.
The winner on the Gold Coast will be ideally placed to earn a shot at the winner of that fight, who will hold three of the division’s belts, and secure a share of a purse Jackson’s promoter and trainer Noel Thornberry expects to be in the millions.
Thornberry told AAP he would seek a deal with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing, who have a seven-fight annual contract with Fox Sports in Australia, to stage that clash in England’s Perth home base should he win on Saturday.
Not since George Kambosos Jnr lost his IBF and WBO lightweight belts to WBC champion Devin Haney at Marvel Stadium in 2022 has there been a fight with higher stakes on Australian soil.
“It’d be a seven-figure fight,” Thornberry told AAP.
“Jackson’s gone most of his (10-year) career without a big sponsor, battling for the spotlight.
“(Australian promoter) No Limit did make an offer that didn’t impress us, we just thought, ‘stuff it, let’s win a world title on our own’.”
The fight was initially set for Kazakhstan last year, then Perth, before negotiations again broke down.
The purse bid was ordered and won – thanks to the late, major backing of WA mining identity Sean Spence – by just $14,000 to send the fight to Queensland with just one day remaining in the window stipulated by the IBF.
Former world champion Jamel Herring is among Jackson’s scalps on a four-fight winning streak since he was pipped in a high-quality points loss to Liam Wilson in December 2023.
Wilson was unlucky not to beat Navarette earlier that year in Arizona, when the Mexican favourite was allowed 27 seconds to recover from a left hook that dropped him in the fourth round.
Wilson’s 2023 defeat of Jackson was the curtainraiser for headliner Sam Goodman, who will fight Ryosuke Nishida in Tokyo for the IBF interim world super bantamweight title on Sunday.
The chance comes after he was twice forced out of world title fights against undisputed champion Naoya Inoue due to serious cuts around his eyebrows in sparring.
Four-weight champion Inoue remains king of the division but is eyeing one last fight at super bantamweight – against Jesse Rodriguez – before moving up to featherweight.
That would mean Sunday’s winner is then awarded full world champion status.
Goodman (22-1) lost a controversial points decision at featherweight to Nick Ball in Saudi Arabia last year and, back at his ideal weight, doesn’t want to leave it to the judges in Tokyo.
“I’m not too focused on the past at the moment. It’s been full of ups and downs, but we’re almost here now and we’re ready to go,” he said.
“It’s for sure shaped who I am and shaped me into the fighter I am.
“I just know I’m going to get my hand raised.”
“It (Nishida) is a good match-up for me … I’ve got more than enough to beat this guy.”
