Boxing
Tom Little: I'll knock out Alen Babic, then we'll drink the minibar dry
Tom Little (10-8, 3 KOs) has been confirmed as the next opponent for unbeaten prospect Alen Babic (5-0, 5 KOs), which to most boxing fans means Little is the next mouse to be thrown into the snake's vivarium.
However, the tenured heavyweight from Hatfield does not see anything special in the Croatian.
Babic, who claims to morph from his regular everyday self into a vicious alter-ego he refers to as "The Savage" when the bell rings on fight night, has obliterated his first five professional opponents so far.
His most recent adversary, Ireland's Niall Kennedy, was halted early in Round 3, making him the man to survive Babic the longest, at a total of six minutes and 34 seconds of ring time and the first to force a third round at all.
Shawndell Terell Winters, Ramazi Gogichashvili, Morgan Dessaux and Lazar Stojanovic were all wiped out by Babic within two rounds, with Dessaux only lasting 56 seconds.
Little, meanwhile, has a very mixed record and was halted in his last four outings by Mahammadrasul Majidov, David Price, Daniel Dubois and Filip Hrgovic, making Babic an odds-on favourite to avoid a fourth round yet again.
But recent form has not dented Little's confidence at all heading into this fight on the undercard of Conor Benn vs. Sebastian Formella.
"I'm massively motivated for this fight," Little told Matchroom Boxing. "No disrespect to Alen. He's a great fighter. At this particular moment in time I don't see him as a level above anyone I've boxed already.
"I've had a look at him. I've promised him a proper fight. Me and him are going to meet in the middle and knock absolute lumps out of each other, and then we'll drink the minibar dry.
'I'll be in there to tear absolute lumps out of him. Alen is 'The Savage' and I'm the 'Gypopotamus'. We're both fighting men and this is what we live for. We're going to meet in the middle and I've planned for nothing but fireworks.
"I plan on giving a fight that is going to be remembered. I implore anyone to run forward at me and let me smash them on the chin. I won't be running from anybody. I haven't got a cowardly bone inside my body. I predict a bloodbath on November 21.
"I know that a top version of Tom Little beats the top version of Alen Babic. He won't have to look too far for me. He'll have to try and push me back. He's going to bring all of the fire of hell with him, I know he is.
"I'm not worried about a bully. I don't worry about being pushed back. His work rate is phenomenal. I know I'm in for a hard night. I feel that I'll wear him down and knock him out. I genuinely do. I'm going to have to weather a very hard storm. I will take him out. I think I'll be too clinical."
Babic has had some very entertaining verbal exchanges with some opponents, most notably Winters, but he and Kennedy were very civil to one another before going to war on the undercard of Joshua Buatsi vs. Marko Calic, and Little also has a very high opinion of his weekend adversary as a person.
"There's no way you can say that you dislike Alen," continued Little. "If you do then you're just out to dislike people and you've got no intensions of liking anyone.
"Everything about him is likeable. He's a character. He's what the sport needs. We get on very well. I've assured him that the moment that bell goes he will be public enemy number one."
In the main event on Nov. 21 at the SSE Arena, Wembley, Conor Benn (16-0, 11 KOs) looks to step up in his pursuit of welterweight glory against Germany's Sebastian Formella (22-1, 10 KOs).
Elsewhere, English heavyweight champion Fabio Wardley (9-0, 8 KOs) takes on Ghana's Richard Lartey (14-3, 11 KOs) Liam Davies (7-0, 2 KOs) meets Sean Cairns (7-2, 1 KO) for the English bantamweight title and Ben Ridings (3-0) battles Jez Smith (11-2-1, 5 KOs) over six rounds at middleweight.
The show will air live on Sky Sports in the U.K. and on DAZN in all nine DAZN markets including the U.S.
