Shakiel Thompson, Thomas Essomba return in separate bouts on February 9

GBM Sports will launch 2024 with a card in Sheffield on Friday 9th February at the Canon Medical Arena that will feature unbeaten middleweight star Shakiel Thompson; European super bantamweight champion Thomas Essomba, and a blistering 50/50 English super bantamweight title showdown between Stevi Levy and Ebonie Jones, streaming free on Talk Sport YouTube Boxing Channel.

GBM Sports Promoter Izzy Asif follows up on his ‘Clash on the Court’ event last October that officially opened the brand new Canon Medical Arena, the new home to the basketball teams the Sheffield Sharks and Hatters.

Thompson (10-0-0, 6 KO’s), features on the card via Sky Sports and promoter BOXXER, faces a competitive test against a former European Kick Boxing champion in Gino Kanters.

Sheffield based Cameroonian, Essomba (12-8-1, 4 KO’s) who made headlines around the world when he and his teammates from the Cameroon boxing team walked out of the athletes’ village at London 2012 and defected.

Just over a decade later and an incredible journey that could by turned into a Hollywood movie, Essomba was crowned European Champion in May when he dethroned Italian Alessio Lorusso in Monza.

Now calling Sheffield his home after being granted full citizenship in 2020, Essomba will make the first defence of the title on home turf against the tough Frenchman Konki (14-1-0, 1 KO).

Essomba said, “I’m just so happy to be defending my EBU title at home and looking forward to putting on a show for my Sheffield people. A massive thank you to my brother Sunny Edwards and Chris from RCP Electric who have funded this fight for me and thank you to GBM Sports and Izzy Asif for putting the show on. After all the messing around from the French team, I’m looking to causing Konki a lot of problems on the night."

Levy (9-2-0), Norfolk’s first ever female professional boxer, and Portsmouth’s Jones (4-0-1), a former soldier in the Royal Engineers, collide in a real 50/50 battle with the Vacant English super bantamweight title on the line.

Unbeaten super featherweight Faraqat ‘Frak’ Ali (8-0-0) defeated Mexican Christian Lopes Flores last time out and is now on the edge of contention to challenge for the first title of his career.