Coventry’s River Wilson-Bent returns to the big promotions shows with a 10-round contest on the undercard of AJ's return to the ring against Jermaine Franklin. The show is on April first at the O2 arena in London and is a Matchroom promotion that will be aired live on the DAZN platform across the world. River will be taking on the unbeaten southpaw American Austin Williams in a 10-round Middleweight contest. Austin (26) from Houston, Texas has an impressive record of 13 wins without defeat and has won a WBA International Middleweight title in that time. River is rebuilding his career after being stopped for the first time by Hamzah Sheeraz in November of last year. He has wasted no time having only one six-rounder before stepping back up and into the same ring he was stopped in against another unbeaten fighter.
I caught up with River and asked him a few questions about his up-and-coming fight. We've gone back to full-time training and really working on being relaxed and a lot more you will see on fight night. My first question to the Coventry fighter was, have you changed anything in your training since your defeat against Hamzah Sheeraz? River told me “We've gone back to full-time training and really working on being relaxed and a lot more you will see on fight night”. I then asked him how his training was going for this fight.? River informed me “Training is hard, we've got 3 weeks so 2 weeks of taking myself and body to hell and a week to come back ready to box”. I then asked River, what are you expecting from Williams in this fight? River said, “I'm expecting him to start fast but we will be ready”. I then asked him for a prediction,? River said confidently “I want to knock him out as soon as I can, but if it doesn't come I’ll take a point victory”.
We then talked about his future and if he wins this contest does he look at fighting for the English title or look at going for bigger ones? He informed me “Its hard to say, I’ll sit down with my team after and see what the best option is”. My final question to the talented fighter was, you have been on big shows before but how do you feel about being on the undercard of Anthony Joshua’s come back fight? He told me “If I'm honest it is decent being on the AJ’s undercard but it's just another ring in another building, I not going to be star struck, I’ll do my job to get the win”.
Dexter’s Thoughts
It’s great to see River Wilson-Bent back where he belongs on the big promotion shows and on a big Matchroom show. River will be fighting out of the away corner against a Matchroom fighter but I think they have made a big mistake letting Williams jeopardize his record against Wilson-Bent. River looked good in his last six-rounder getting some ring rust off and going through the gears. I have no doubt that this is going to be a really hard fight for the Coventry fighter but I can see him shocking Eddie Hearn and get a great win on a big platform and start looking at the more prominent titles in the Middleweight division.