Healy joins Windle on Cayman show

Katie Healy faces Canadian opposition on show

ACCORDING to The Sun newspaper, freezing Britain should brace itself for temperatures touching a bone chilling -11.

The Cayman Islands, in the western Caribbean, is basking in 30 degree warmth. And there, miles from the frost coated, bustling Christmas lit streets of their home towns and cities, two of the West Midlands finest compete in key contests on Friday.

The adventurers are Matt Windle, who puts his Commonwealth light-flyweight belt on the line, and Wolverhampton’s Katie Healy.

Healy, who unsuccessfully challenged for a version of the world bantam title in June, faces 40-year-old Canadian Shelly Barnett on the show.

Barnett, who has won five of 15 (two draws) was to have faced Sutton Coldfield’s unbeaten Tori-Ellis Willetts.

For reasons not explained to me, that fell through and 25-year-old Healey was presented with a Christmas payday and taste of sunshine.

She should also bag a 10 round win at the Lions Centre, Grand Cayman. The WBA title loss to Nina Hughes is the only blemish on a seven fight career that has seen Katie win the WBF in South Africa.

The Black Country star, a former kickboxing champ, is certainly getting to see the world.

Katie told Fightzone.uk: “I have always learned more from my losses and come back as a stronger fighter, just as I’m looking to do on the Cayman show against Shelly.”

Matt Windle…first defence of Commonwealth belt

For Birmingham’s Windle it’s another unlikely chapter in an amazing career.

Five thousand mile from home, Matt will make the first defence of his Commonwealth light-flyweight title against Yorkshireman Craig Derbyshire.

He was to have faced an unbeaten Canadian. When that bout went south, Derbyshire stepped in.

As Windle put it: “When I started boxing, I didn’t, in my wildest dreams, think I’d be fighting a man from Doncaster for a title in the Cayman Islands. But isn’t that just my story?” he added.

Derbyshire is a solid, seasoned championship fighter making his first foray in the light-fly division. He took the English flyweight title by outpointing Joe Maphosa in 2021 and last year drew in a British title scrap with Tommy. This year he lost on points to Connor Butler for the Commonwealth flyweight crown.

But Derbyshire has never made light-fly – and, at the age of 32, that’s surely going to be a struggle.

Mind you, Windle, aged 33, did it. After a career spent at flyweight, he shed those stubborn four pounds to stop Siphelele Myeza last October for the Commonwealth belt, breathing life into a division considered dead and buried in Britain.

“I think Craig Derbyshire is a very good fighter,” Windle said. “People may look at his record and poo-poo him, but go through his record. When he’s given a title opportunity, he takes it on and comes through.

“He’s strong, very physical, really fit and ready to go. Obviously, I imagine he’s going to be strong, but it’s a tough weight to make. If you could always lose four pounds every fight, every fighter would get down to light-fly.”

This week, Matt posted: I am beyond privileged to have landed in the big GC and to be representing the Cayman Islands as their Commonwealth champion (the Cayman Islands is a British Overseas Territory.

Sunbathing and sightseeing will have to wait though. For now, I have a job to do. Tune in to Fightzone TV in the early hours of Saturday morning to watch the first ever Commonwealth title fight on Cayman soil.”

Another slice of history made by Matt.