Northampton fighter ​Conway has his sights set on British title glory

The Team-Shoe Box fighter is making his final preparations ahead of his huge title fight with Gerome Warburton at the Copper Box Arena in London on May 17.

Conway is aiming to become only the second male fighter from Northampton to secure a British title, and the first to do it while still living in his home town.

The only other Northamptonian to claim a British male title is Ash Lane, who won the bantamweight crown in 2024, but he is now based in Bristol.

Conway takes on southpaw Warburton for the vacant British title, and will also be putting his Commonwealth crown on the line, having claimed that belt by beating Ryan Kelly in Birmingham in November.

The 29-year-old has fought for a British title before, but drew that fight with Ted Cheeseman for the super welterweight belt back in 2019.

He has had to be patient for the chance to be a British champion come along again, but Conway is now on the cusp of what would be a monumental achievement.

“He has had a really solid camp, and had lots of good sparring," said James Conway, who is Kieran's father and coach.

"He’s at an excellent fitness level from working in the altitude chamber in Nottingham University for the first part of his camp, and he’s been fine-tuning positioning and some shots we believe will become valuable on fight night.”

Conway goes into the fight with a pro record of 22 wins, three defeats and one draw, while Welshman Warburton, who is also 29, has won 15, lost one and drawn twice.

Former Kings Heath amateur Conway, nicknamed 'Too Class', is on a run of four wins, and hasn't been beaten since losing on points to the highly-rated American Austin ‘Ammo’ Williams in Las Vegas in 2022.

His only defeat on home soil came back in 2019 when he was beaten in a three-round contest by Derrick Osaze in a Box-Pro tournament in London.

Next Saturday’s contest will be the first Warburton has fought over 12 rounds, and Conway has a massive advantage in terms of big-fight experience, and rounds under the belt.

Warburton, who is nicknamed the Bread Maker, has only gone 10 rounds three times in his career and has never fought for a title, while Conway has already been involved in three 12-round title fights – with two going the distance – as well as going the 10-round distance six times before.

Warburton is unbeaten in his past eight bouts and hasn’t lost since 2021, but Conway Snr believes his man has the edge in terms of quality, form and experience, saying: “Kieron is unbeaten in the UK for more than six years, and since then he has mixed at an extremely high level.

"Come May 17 we don’t see anything denying him finally becoming the first Northampton resident to win a British title.

"And what a weight it would be to win it at, arguably the most coveted weight category in British boxing history.”

Conway versus Warburton is the headline bout on the Matchroom Boxing promotion, which is being beamed live across the globe on DAZN.