Ivan Zucco is far more concerned by what will happen between the ropes rather than outside them when he travels to Barnsley to fight home favourite, Callum Simpson, for the vacant European super middleweight title on June 7th.

A hostile crowd of around 15,000 is expected to fill Oakwell Stadium on the night and even though the event is all but guaranteed to sell out, the unbeaten Italian still made a whistle stop trip to the Yorkshire town to promote the show and attend a launch press conference.

As a couple of hundred of Simpson’s fans milled around The Garrison sports bar chanting their hero’s name, Zucco and his manager and sometime interpreter, Christian Cherchi, cooly racked up a game of pool in a quiet back room.

“I get it,” Zucco, 21-0 (18 KOs), told The Ring. “Callum Simpson has become a star, popular in a short period of time.

“Popularity is good for the passion. The people from here, they support the local fighters. It's very good. He's lucky to have got here so quickly.

“Boxing in the UK is good for this because every city supports their own fighters. It doesn't always happen in the other parts of the world.

“I like this because Callum's fans can see me, can know me. It's important for me.”

As it turned out, Simpson’s passionate fans gave Zucco a respectful, friendly welcome to Barnsley but whilst he only got a small taste of the partisan atmosphere that awaits him next month, the short publicity tour did give him the chance to look around an unseasonably warm Oakwell Stadium and he also got the opportunity to weigh up the taller Simpson in the flesh.

Zucco has amassed 21 consecutive wins and - as Simpson, 17-0 (12 KOs) rightly pointed out - has more knockouts on his record than he has fights but he is still very much aware that he will be a bit part player when he returns to England in June.

None of that will matter when the ring clears on June 7th and the 29 year-old believes that he and Simpson are extremely well matched.

“My opinion is that he is an athlete; a boxer. I suppose he trains hard, like me. He loves boxing, like me. He wants to win, like me,” he said.

“Boxing is the most beautiful sport in the world.

“There are two opponents, but only one of them can win. Me and him do everything to win.

“I don't see Callum as a star because if the match had taken place in Italy, it's the same for me because I have more public. It’s the same kind of atmosphere because everybody is rooting for me. It’s the other way around because he comes from the UK.”

If Simpson has passed every test his handlers have placed in front of him, so too has Zucco.

In 2021 he won the Italian title by stopping the previously undefeated Luca Capuano and the following year he passed his biggest test on paper with flying colours, blowing away Croatia’s Marko Nikilic - then 28-1 - in just two rounds.

Those are the type of results that place a southpaw like Zucco firmly in the ‘Who Needs Him Club’ but he managed to get in ten useful rounds with former English champion, Germaine Brown, and aware that he faces a high intensity encounter with the the volume punching Simpson, he took himself away to Mexico to kick off his training camp with some hard sparring.

If this is the ideal fight for Simpson, it is also the type of fight Zucco has been waiting for.

“My major quality is the consistency, the pressure, the power of my punch. I’m also technical. Callum must be careful,” he said.

“It's the same for me, obviously, but I have a very powerful punch.

“Boxing is like this. One punch can change the match. So he has to stay very concentrated and the many people that come can put more pressure on him.

“This is a big opportunity for me to watch what I can do in the world.

“So I want to come here on June 7th in the best shape ever, the best condition ever and I will do this."