Boxing Scotland middleweight champion Fraser Wilkinson drops down to super welterweight and targets his 10th professional victory in 11 bouts at Aberdeen’s Ardoe House Hotel

Moray’s Scottish boxing champion Fraser Wilkinson will revert to his former weight in a bid to claim his tenth professional win this weekend.

Then he’s off to Hong Kong for a training and sparring camp with a highly-regarded Chinese fighter.

The winner of the vacant Scottish middleweight belt in Elgin in May, Wilkinson fights at Aberdeen’s Ardoe House Hotel on Saturday at super welterweight.

It’s the weight where he claimed his first Scottish belt in 2022, before losing the rematch five months later for his only pro defeat to date.

The 23-year-old product of Elgin Amateur Boxing Club had been weighing up international title tilts at middleweight, but has taken up a place on the undercard for highly-rated Aberdeen sighter Dean Sutherland in the Granite City.

Wilkinson had been lined up to take on a Russian fighter but instead he takes on Jordan Grannum at super welterweight, a journeyman whose previous fights include one against one of Ireland’s top current boxers, Aaron McKenna.

“For this one we are dropping back down to my former weight to see how I do and take it from there,” he said. “We will make decisions on how we are going to go for titles whether I’m going to be a middleweight or a light middleweight.”

“I have worked with the promoter just to get me in the ring for this one, and it will just be about getting the job done.

“I’m going for my tenth professional win. My opponent is a hardy journeyman who went 27-0 as an amateur then turned pro, won his first couple of fights and then he couldn’t sell tickets so he just decided to hit the road.

“He’s only been stopped twice and one of those times was by Aaron McKenna, who is now seen as a superstar. So if I can pull off a big performance on Saturday it is going to show people what direction I am going.

“This guy is capable of turning up on the night against a prospect and knocking them out. He’s got a couple of knockouts on the record so he’s definitely somebody I’ve got to watch out for and not take lightly.”

Since defeating Ben McGivern at Elgin Town Hall in April to take the Scottish middleweight crown, Wilkinson has been involved in sparring camps with the likes of current super middleweight champ Darren Johnstone.

After this weekend’s bout in Aberdeen, his promoters will fly him out to Hong Kong for a ten-day camp, where he will train and spar with an up-and-coming Chinese boxer preparing for a big title fight.

“We have been offered a couple of title fights at middle or super welter, a couple of international titles as well so we will wait and see,” Wilkinson added.

“I made the judgement back in the day of jumping into fights but as I’ve matured I have realised it is a slow burner in pro boxing and the timing has to be right.

“I’m just focusing on looking after myself. I feel like I’m noticing a real progression in training, not just in fights. So we are definitely getting there.

“This year could be massive for me, 100 percent. But I just have to keep level-headed, keep my head down and keep working.”