Arnfield ready to become the best of British

Arnfield, who has won 25 out of his 27 fights, challenges for the British middleweight title on the undercard of the World Boxing Super Series semi-final between George Groves and Chris Eubank Jr at Manchester Arena.

This will be the second time the 28-year-old has challenged for the Lonsdale belt, having been beaten by Nick Blackwell back in 2015.

But on that occasion, Arnfield had just eight days notice for the fight; this time he has had a full camp which has gone exactly how he had planned it according to the Fylde coast challenger.

“Everything has gone perfect, the weight has gone well and training has been good. So I’m in a really good place this week,” he told The Gazette.

“Training eases up now. My weight is good so it’s not like I need to get any weight off.

“So I will just go in the gym and work on the game plan, little bits of technique to perfect stuff and keeping myself supple for Saturday night.”

The British middleweight championship contest between champion Langford and mandatory challenger Arnfield is set to be an exciting and intriguing 50/50 fight for the purists between two of the best operators on the British 160-pound scene.

Langford has lost just one of his 20 fights, picking up the British strap with a split decision win over Sam Sheedy in 2016. This is his first defence.

Arnfield added: “Tommy’s going to be confident, isn’t he? He’s the British champion at the end of the day and I’m the challenger.

“If he wasn’t confident going into the fight then there would be something wrong.

“But the fight is mine, it’s in the bag as far as I’m concerned.

“Every fight in front of me is the toughest fight of my career, I don’t look past it and I don’t look at previous fights.

“He’s an opponent in front of me who is trying to knock me out at the end of the day.

“But I’m 100 per cent confident of beating him and I will treat it as the hardest fight of my career.”

Groves and Eubank Jr will fight for the WBA and IBO world titles in a sold-out arena, meaning the biggest fight of Arnfield’s career thus far will be in front of a packed house and on ITV Box Office.

Arnfield is on a six-fight winning streak, a run that included a points victory against Blackpool rival Brian Rose last year.

In his last fight, he overcame Adam Jones on points in a six-round bout in Liverpool.