Hometown victory would cap Sutherland’s flawless year so far

Aberdeen welterweight Dean Sutherland aims to finish a breakthrough year on a high by extending his impeccable record to nine victories.

The 21-year-old will tonight face Edvinas Puplauskas of Lithuania at the Hilton Treetops Hotel.

In his second year as a professional, former world kick-boxing champion Sutherland has won all four fights and secured his first boxing title.

The southpaw will return to the Granite City venue where he claimed the Boxing Union of Ireland Celtic welterweight title with a points defeat of Keane McMahon in May.

Sutherland said: “It has been a brilliant year for me and I want to end it with another victory.

“I started off fast with wins in February and March before then winning my first title.

“After winning that title I needed a bit of time off during the summer.

“That was the best thing I did because it allowed me to properly recover mentally and physically.

“It also allowed me time to reassess what my goals are and then to get a strategy to push forward with what I want to do.”

Step one of that strategy is to engineer a Commonwealth title shot.

Tonight’s clash was initially scheduled to be one of two eliminators for a potential fight for the Commonwealth belt held by Chris Jenkins.

However, Sutherland and his management team opted to forgo that tonight in a bid to land a Scottish title clash with reigning champion Stewart Burt.

Talks with the camps of both fighters have begun on that potential Scottish title showdown.

That Commonwealth eliminator status will be used as a bargaining chip with Burt and his team in the attempt to land that title chance.

First however former multiple-weight world kick-boxing champion Sutherland must see off Puplauskas tonight.

The 22-year-old, from Kretinga, Lithuania, has a record of 26 losses (one KO) and six wins (four KO).

Puplauskas went the distance against Liam Taylor who is set to face Commonwealth champion Jenkins for the British title later this month.

The Lithuanian also lost on points to former Commonwealth champion Denton Vassell.

Sutherland revealed it is becoming increasingly difficult to find opponents for non-title fights as his record is so daunting.

He said: “As this fight is not for anything now and because I have been very active and won a title I am in an awkward situation.

“I am not quite there yet for the big titles like the British or Commonwealth.

“But I am being avoided a lot. I am looking for people with similar records to myself but no one is coming to the table.

“I had eight people in Britain alone from the weight below my weight to the weight above that we put out offers to.

“Every single one came back with ‘no’.

“Some people are maybe sitting on a record like 8-0 similar to myself but they have not fought anyone with a positive record.

“They have just boxed journeymen or the same journeymen multiple times.

“The difference is I have taken step-ups early in my career and I’ve taken chances and they paid off.

“To have people unwilling to take the risk against me is quite frustrating.”