CURRENT Australian bantamweight boxing champion, Mount Gambier’s Bobby “Trigger” Trigg, is set to defend his title when he faces Jarrett Owen in Brisbane next month.
Trigg comes off a loss to Luke Boyd in a quest to claim the super bantamweight title, which was vacant at the time.
A shoulder injury saw the fight stopped, with Trigg spending his time since recovering and regaining his fitness.
However, he said that is no longer an issue and he was ready for his own title defence on February 24.
“I spent two months out of the gym and have been back training for a few weeks,” Trigg said.
“My shoulder is great now – I am pretty happy with it.”
It will be the first time Trigg has defended his title, which he said he was treating like any other fight.
“I am not any more nervous,” he said.
“I just have to get in there and win.”
But Trigg will again face a bigger opponent, with Owen needing to drop a division to contest the fight, something the Australian champion is not concerned about.
“We have to do it,” he said.
“It is the only fight I can get and probably the easiest one too.
“No one wants to fight me at my weight.
“He is a lot heavier and coming down to bantamweight, if he can make it, but I will be right.
“I will just get in there and bang on with him.”
Trigg’s trainer Colin Cassidy said it would be a tough bout, having to travel to Owen’s home to defend the title.
“He (Owen) is 32 years old, very experienced, but near the end of his career,” he said.
“We are fighting him in his gym and have been told we will have to knock him out to win.
“I think we can stop him.
“It is not going to be easy – they are not bringing us up there to lose – but there is no use hiding around.
“You have to go and beat them on their home ground.
“If you want to make sure you win it, you have to stop the guy.
“From what I have seen, it should be an exciting fight, but I just think we have this guy.”
Cassidy said there would be no doubt about Trigg’s fitness leading into the title defence.
“We have been easing him back into training, then sent him up to Adelaide for 10 rounds of sparring with the Australian youth champion,” Colin Cassidy said.
“We sent him up there to test his shoulder against a class fighter so we know exactly how it is going.”
Trigg said he would go in with a plan and look to stop Owen when the chance presented itself.
“It will be full pressure until the seventh or eighth round, then after that we will try some heavy hits,” he said.
“It will be fairly controlled, with constant non-stop punching.”
Depending on the outcome of the fight, Cassidy said further opportunities are in the offing, with the chance to fight more locally at Warrnambool, which should please his growing hoard of fans here in the Limestone Coast.
