An interesting Liverpool derby has been added to the undercard of Nick Ball’s WBA featherweight title defence against Ireland’s former IBF super bantamweight champion, T.J Doheny.

On March 15th, experienced Commonwealth super-flyweight titlist Ryan Farrag (23-5, 6 KOs) will attempt to derail destructive young hope, Jack Turner (10-0, 9 KOs).

There will be a WBA ranking title on the line when the pair meet at Liverpool's M&S Bank Arena. TNT Sports will televise the event.

Farrag represents an entirely different type of challenge to the men Turner has been impressively and brutally dispatching. He has been there and done it.

It is over nine years since he travelled to Belgium and knocked out former world title challenger Stephane Jamoye, to win the European bantamweight title and has taken top, world-level talents like former unified bantamweight champion Ryan Burnett and former IBF flyweight champion Sunny Edwards the championship distance.

Farrag slowly drifted away from the sport after losing to Edwards, eventually spending almost four years on the sidelines but always kept himself fit and decided to return back in 2023.

36-year-old bantamweights certainly aren’t enticed back to the ring due to the riches on offer and aware that his time in the sport will be relatively short, Farrag jumped right back in at the deep end.

A month after Turner turned professional, he returned from his lay-off and dropped the closest of decisions to British and Commonwealth super-flyweight champion, Marcel Braithwaite.

Rather than being broken by the defeat, Farrag took heart from his performance. Rust shed, he boxed his way to a clear decision victory over the tough, awkward Quaise Khademi to win the Commonwealth belt.

Turner has made great strides over the past 18 months but although this feels like exactly the right test at exactly the right time for him, will have to be at his best to pass it. Farrag is determined to pose the kind of problems he has yet to encounter.

“I don't know what people will think when they see this fight but I assume a lot of people will write me off and that's fine, I don't mind that. Jack's tough, he's strong, untested and I think we'll definitely find out on the night how good he is,” Farrag told The Ring.

“I heard that his coach [Joe McNally] didn't want the fight and I understand that because it's like, why take such a massive step up when he's got a good little path laid out for him?

“They're looking at my age and I think that they're going to think Jack will be too young, too fresh for me but little do they know. The life I'm living now is the reason I'm able to still be in the sport.

“I look after myself. I eat good. I train all the time.”

Farrag will need every bit of the know-how he has accumulated over the years to navigate his way past Turner. The 22 year-old has displayed the rare ability to finish a fight in the blink of an eye and eight of his ten wins have come inside the opening round.

Experience has taught Farrag that although resilience must be a key of his pre-fight plan, he will also need to ask Turner plenty of questions in return.

Farrag’s best route to victory may not be as immediate or spectacular as Turner’s but if he can make the younger man think, take away his leverages and frustrate him, it could be every bit as effective.

“I think the key is in the camp. As long as I do the work now that I need to do and turn up in the best version of myself and I'm fit and I'm strong, I think as long as that work's done, when it comes to skills, I don't think he can match me,” he said.

“I think as long as I can stay away from the big shots in the early rounds, I think he'll get a bit bamboozled when he realises that I'm not just falling over like these fellas that he's been fighting against and he's going to be getting hit a lot himself, which I don't think he has been.

“I know he's probably had a lot of tough sparring but it's different when you get in with the eight-ounce gloves and you're missing and you're getting hit.

“That's the other thing as well, I’m not going to stand there and let him whack away. I'm going to make him miss a lot. So I think the key is a good defence and a good strategy.”