Callum Simpson is still sporting the wounds of his 10-round war with Italy's Ivan Zucco, but the newly crowned European super middleweight champion is already plotting the future.

Last summer, the 28-year-old attracted 7,000 fans to Barnsley's Oakwell Stadium for his British and Commonwealth title fight with Zak Chelli. Last weekend 15,000 turned up to watch him get off the floor twice to stop Zucco, becoming the Yorkshire town's first EBU champion.

Immediately after the fight, Simpson (18-0, 13 KOs) declared that the logical next step in his remarkable rise is to bring a world title fight to his hometown.

Simpson has created the drawing power that will give him plenty of leverage in any world title negotiations and he is now left with 12 months to position himself and accumulate the relevant experience.

Simpson saw a potential fight with his British rival Mark Jeffers (20-1, 7 KOs) bite the dust when the Chorley man lost to America's Sean Hemphill on Saturday's undercard, but he has quickly adjusted his sights.

"I'd love the Hamzah Sheeraz fight," Simpson said during an appearance on talkBOXING.

"That's a fight that I'd want, definitely. He's moved up from from middleweight to super middle and that's a fight, domestically, that makes sense as well.

"Domestically, there's no other big names. There's no big fights there for me."

After scraping a draw with WBC middleweight champion Carlos Adames on Feb. 22 in Riyadh, the 6ft 3in tall Sheeraz decided to step up to the 168lb division and is just under a month away from making an ambitious entrance into his new weight class.

On July 12, Sheeraz will fight former world title challenger Edgar Berlanga (23-1, 18 KOs), in a WBC title eliminator. The fight will serve as the main event on Ring III, set to take place at Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, New York.

Regardless of how Sheeraz fares, Simpson believes that a fight with the Essex man would help him bridge the gap to world class.

"I want to win the British outright," Simpson said. "Defending against Sheeraz is a British and European defence and then, obviously, I want to step up in levels and feel that is another level up from from Zucco. I don't think Sheeraz is world level.

"Even if he was to lose against Berlanga, that still be, for me, a big fight but I just want to keep stepping up. I'd love to defend the European [title]."