Cherneka Johnson comes into away territory to defend her IBF super bantamweight world title against Ellie Scotney on the Sunny Edwards Vs Andres Campos undercard in London tomorrow night.
The New Zealander (15-1, 6 KOs) now based in Australia won her world title against Melissa Esquivel in Melbourne last year having come off a first career defeat to Shannon O’Connell. Tomorrow marks her first fight outside of Australia and is prompted by Lou DiBella.
ProBox TV caught up with DiBella to get his views ahead of tomorrow’s world title fight.
“That is going to be a good fight.” DiBella said. “Don’t underestimate Cherneka, I know that much. This has been setup in favour of Scotney, Cherneka is bringing the belt to Ellie’s hometown. But Cherneka is a really really tough lady, she is a blood and guts warrior, and I think that she has a really good chance to upset the apple cart. Even though she is the champion, my understanding is that Ellie is the favourite.I wouldn’t be surprised if Cherneka upsets the odds this weekend.”
The world title fight was originally planned to be part of Katie Taylor’s grand homecoming complimenting the Irish stars undisputed clash with Chantelle Cameron. However, due to a request from the camp of Cameron, the fight was moved away from Dublin to London.
“It was terrible, I wish it didn’t happen.” DiBella responded. “She had a fight on the Katie Taylor show, which would have been better for her to fight in Ireland rather than Ellie’s hometown. But that being said, I made a deal with Eddie Hearn to move it. He thought that it was something that was necessary for a lot of reasons, and you know what, everybody’s well being, health and safety and everything else is more important ultimately. But in a perfect world I would have preferred for Cherneka not to be in her opponents hometown to defend her title, but we have good judges and we are hoping it will be a fair decision.”
