MARC Allen will be hoping his home crowd can roar him to victory when he takes on defending champion Terry Doyle for the Ultimate Impact (UI) welterweight title at GL1 on Saturday.
The clash will be the first of two title fights on the night with Adam Boussif looking to defend his welterweight title against Shane Riley, while there are another 13 matches on the card at the mixed martial arts (MMA) and kickboxing event featuring amateur and professional fighters.
Allen, who lives in Gloucester, earned his shot at the title after beating former champion Wayne Drake at the last UI event in November and has an 8-5 win-loss record.
"He's going to be bringing a lot of support which is important for him to lift the title," said Paul Sutherland, who coaches Allen at Trojan Free Fighters in Cheltenham and is the matchmaker for the event.
Doyle won the title in June when he beat Drake in just his second professional fight to hold a 100 per cent winning record, but Allen is a two-time Pain Pit Fight Night champion.
London-based Boussif will be looking to retain the title he won on his last UI show at the start of 2014 when he beat Phil Wells by submission. He has a 6-3 record and has fought all over the country, as well as in Cage Warriors events in Europe.
Swansea's Shane Riley has fought at in the UI competition three times and won his two previous fights to put himself in a position to go for the title.
The headline kickboxing match will be the welterweight title fight eliminator between Gloucester's Steve Smith and Dave Conlon, who is a member of East West Muay Thai Boxing Club in Stroud.
There will also be five ladies bouts on the night with UI flyweight kickboxing champion Laura Handy making her MMA debut against European BJJ champion Ffion Davies.
UI co-owner Sutherland is a former multiple champion in kickboxing and MMA and has trained fighters who have competed in some of the world's top organisations, such as UFC's Che Mills, while he has also worked as an official judge for the UFC.
He is hoping for a big crowd, expecting anything between 500 and 1,000.
Sutherland said: "It is run professionally and the fighters are vetted by myself. I've been in this sport for a few years and I'm a former champion so I know how to treat the fighters."
Standard tickets for the event cost £25, while cage-side seating is £35, and VIP table seating is £45, and can be bought from www.
ultimateimpactevents.com, GL1 Reception or Trojan Free Fighters Cheltenham Gym. Doors open at 4.30pm for a 5.30pm start.
