Neil Laird Promising 'A Short Fight Ending With A Big Knockout Or Tight Submission'

By Dean Parr

At Fight Ikon 6 on February 20th in Bolton, Neil Laird (2-0) of the Battlefield Gym will compete against Avi Jack (2-0) in a Welterweight contest. In anticipation of this bout, Scotland's Laird is excited.

"I'm really looking foward this fight," enthused Neil, before jokingly adding, "It's going to be the first time I've fought someone around about my own height!

"I was really impressed with the set up of the last Fight Ikon show [I fought on] and how well all the fighters were treated. It's definitely one of the best shows in the UK."

Neil doesn't know too much about his opponent going into this, but is extremely confident all the same.

"I've not seen too many videos of him, and the ones I have seen were at Semi-Pro," revealed Laird. "If Avi wants to stand with me I can assure everyone I'll knock him out in the first round, but if he wants to take it to the ground, I'll happily submit him."

The 77kg fighter told us a little about his fights in the Pro game to date.

"My fight against Phil Flynn [in Neil's Pro debut] was a good experience and has taught me to pick my punches and not get overexcited when I rock someone.

"I actually had a fight after that on a small show in Glasgow called "Kombat Glasgow" against Mark Young, who I knocked out in fifteen seconds."

Laird was slated to be on the November 20th Clash of Warriors card, but in the end was not on the show. Neil explained why this didn't come off. He noted,

"I had a few personal issues that meant I couldn't train as hard as I would have liked to and I felt I wasn't in a good enough condition to fight."

The Kilmarnock man reckons a win over Jack at Ikon would be a good launchpad to bigger things, and is planning to remain very active in 2011.

"A win over Avi will take my record to 3-0 which will help me on my way to fighting some of the UK's bigger names," stated Neil. "I plan on fighting at least 6 times this year, and hopefully get a fight with Steven Ray from Edge MMA sometime this year aswell."

So in a nutshell, what can attendees of Fight Ikon 6 expect from the 19-year old Scot?

"A short fight ending in either a big knockout or a tight submission," to use his own words directly.

To wrap up, Neil had a few thanks he wanted to make.

"I'd just like to thank my coach and everyone I've trained with for this fight. Also, my sponsors RB Sports and my family."

For more information on Laird vs. Jack, and the rest of the Fight Ikon 6 bill, please visit http://www.fightikon.com.