Aussie Olympic star Harry Garside (1-0) returns to the ring for his second professional fight against Manuer Matet (4-1) for the Australian lightweight title in Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion. The match will be held from 7PM AEST on Fox Sports and Kayo.
Garside’s first professional bout ended with a first round TKO win over Sachin Mudaliar in December, but Sudanese-Australian Matet will prove one of the biggest hurdles yet for the Tokyo bronze medallist.
The day before Garside won over Mudaliar, Matet took a comfortable unanimous decision win over Jye Lane Taylor.
It’s a bold move for Garside that has been praised by Jeff Fenech.
“I take my hat off to you Harry. This guy (Matet), I’m not going to say he’s going to beat you but he’s going to give you a lot of problems,” Fenech said at Monday’s press conference.
“Harry’s certainly got one hell of a fighter in front of him … I’m proud of Harry for doing it but it’s not a fight I would’ve had for my guy having his second fight. I would’ve maybe looked at it for down the road so I think it’s been a very, very brave decision for Team Garside to do this and I’m sure they’re ready.”
Garside is not the only Olympian on the card, however. 24-year-old professional debutant Paulo Aokuso will be fighting for the Australasian light heavyweight belt against Michael Van Nimwegen (11-7) earlier in the night.
The fight card for the night is:
Harry Garside vs. Manuer Matet (Australian lightweight title)
Paulo Aokuso vs. Michael Van Nimwegen
Blake Wells vs. Renold Quinlan
Alex Lual vs. Aaron KayHassan Hamdan vs. Ryan Cotten
Kate McLaren vs. Pam McClelland
Daniel Harwood vs. Tyler Blizzard
Shanell Dargan vs. Ashleigh Sims
Watch Harry Garside vs Manuer Matet Live on Kayo Wednesday 6 April from 7PM