Walker: ‘This fight is my World Cup final’

Stare-down…Scarff (left) and Walker. Pic: Mark Robinson/Matchroom

THE bad blood that has boiled and bubbled between bullish Black Country warrior and Harry Scarff will be spilt on canvas tomorrow (Saturday) night.

Tomorrow night, the barbed comments will come to an end as both bite down on their gumshield in an epic televised 12 rounder. The slanging match stops, punches will be slung.

At Nottingham Arena, Wolverhampton’s punching pitbull again faces a man the rest of the pack have avoided – this time for the big prize.

At stake is the British and Commonwealth belts that belong to Derby’s “Horrible” Harry. The nickname is a reference to Scarff’s frustrating, suffocating style, not his demeanour. It has bamboozled a string of top fighters, with granite tough Ekow Essuman, who lost the Lonsdale Belt to Harry, topping the list of those beaten by the box of tricks before them.

And 31-year-old Scarff possesses old school tricks that may not make for a classic encounter in Nottingham. Walker admitted: “It could be a stinker. When the going gets tough, he goes back to his scrappy ways.”

There appears genuine animosity between the pair, stemming – the hype would have you believe – from Scarff’s split decision victory over Walker back in the amateur days. Walker told the press conference for a Matchroom show streamed on DAZN: “I’m looking forward to beating him up around the ring.”

I don’t buy the amateur grudge. It is irrelevant and both boxers know it. It was close to a decade ago and over three rounds. The landscape has changed beyond recognition.

But they definitely don’t like each other. “I’m not his biggest fan,” Walker said. “I’m going to run through him, break him and take his belts,” he told iFL TV.

“He keeps saying he can box how he wants and do this and that. It will all change when he gets one on the chin. There’s no outcome other than my hand getting raised at the end.

“Whatever he brings, I have an answer for. He can do what he wants, I’ve got an answer for everything he can do.”

Scarff told the press posse: “I’m going to show him I’m a level above.” He warned Walker: “You haven’t boxed at my level. Who have you boxed?

“The only thing you can bank on is coming forward and being stronger, but you ain’t stronger. You are going to fall flat on your face.”

Opponents know what they’re going to get from Walker, 29. He’s a sawn-off throwback of a fighter – a snarling, hooking, relentless bundle of fury who turns up the heat with each round. His will is an invisible coat of armour.

And, like those contenders from the 1940s and ‘50s, he doesn’t give a damn about records or reputations. Walker just wants to fight the best. In his own words, “I’ve done it the hard way”.

“I’m fighting the top lads and that is all I want to do in my career,” Walker said. “I want to get to the end of my career and say there wasn’t a fighter I didn’t fight. I’m just enjoying the ride.”

He was brought in to lose to Cyrus Pattinson, a KO artist on course for big things, yet chewed him up, then spat him out.

Belfast banger Lewis Crocker – tipped for stardom – was hacked and harried around the ring, yet snatched a highly debatable points decision.

And last November former British lightweight champ Lewis Ritson was clearly outpointed by the Old Gold gladiator. He, not Scarff, is on a roll.

But Harry has also faced iron.

As a super-welter, he went in with heavy hitters Troy Williamson and Anthony Fowler, losing controversially to the former, climbing off the canvas to extend the latter.

Last time out, in May, he had to travel to Germany for work and dropped a 12 round decision to Ukranian Karen Chukhadzhyan. That was his sole contest in 2024. That’s a measure of how shunned Harry is on the home front.

Tomorrow is, in Walker’s own words, his “World Cup final”.

He said: “The British title was my goal setting out in professional boxing.  I’m constantly trying to make myself a better fighter and I’m going to show more strings to my bow again.”

I believe him. I picked against Walker in both the Pattinson and Crocker fights and don’t want to be left with egg on my face again. The cup’s coming back to Wolverhampton – Conah by a tight points decision.