Mosope Ominiyi
Oct 15, 2025
3 min read
Shabaz Masoud-Peter McGrail tops Matchroom's latest return to Monte-Carlo, Monaco in the first week of December, as part of a stacked card featuring a world title fight and two domestic duels with big ramifications at junior featherweight and welterwei...
Five months after withdrawing from their original fight booking through a training injury, Shabaz Masoud-Peter McGrail is headed overseas.
The two junior featherweights will duel in a 12-round Monte Carlo headliner from Salle des Étoiles, Monaco for the vacant European title streamed live worldwide on DAZN.
It's a belt last held by Dennis McCann before the unbeaten Briton was stripped through inactivity and listed as the next mandatory defence, having originally been slated to box McGrail in December 2024 before news of an adverse drug finding.
Masoud will end a year-long layoff with this contest, having pitched a career-best effort to outbox Liam Davies in a gritty 12-round split decision win last time out.
McGrail (12-1, 6 KOs) has won a pair of deceptively difficult assignments against short-notice opponents, first McCann's replacement Rhys Edwards last December before spoiler Ionut Baluta on June 21.
Ben Davison-trained Masoud is excited to headline one of the world's most luxurious destinations and expects a fan-friendly fight, per comments in the promotion's press release.
In the evening's chief support bout, Brazil's Beatriz Ferreira makes her fourth IBF world lightweight title defence against Turkey's hard-hitting Elif Nur Turhan in a compelling clash of unbeaten boxers.
Turhan (11-0, 7 KOs) told The Ring last month of her willingness to compete at 130 and 135-pounds. Now, she gets an opportunity at full world title honours while WBA junior lightweight champion Alycia Baumgardner handles business against Leila Beaudoin.
The 30-year-old from Istanbul has skyrocketed in popularity over the past year with a trio of stoppage victories and is promising a real war against someone she's long followed, but Ferreira isn't shying away.
Per the press release, the beltholder said: "My coming is coming with a big reputation but the bigger the challenge, the better I perform. I am ready to fight anyone out there to prove that I am the best in the world."
Pat McCormack's one-sided WBA welterweight title eliminator win over Miguel Parra last month hasn't gone unnoticed, but Conah Walker will seek to spoil the Olympic silver medallist's lofty plans in the Principality.
Walker, who watched former foe Lewis Crocker win the IBF title four weeks ago, will be itching to catapult his name towards the world stage and can do exactly that if able to upset another Davison-trained fighter in WBA's No. 4-rated contender McCormack.
"My amateur career has taken me around the world and now I'm excited to visit one of the few locations it hasn't yet taken me," McCormack said.
"Me and Conah are two fighters with great momentum. Many thought he beat Lewis Crocker who is the current world champion, so I'm looking forward to using that to make a statement."
Popular heavyweight Johnny Fisher's rebuild begins under new trainer Tony Sims in Monte-Carlo, five months after a damaging fifth-round stoppage defeat in his Dave Allen rematch.
He'll box Uganda's Herbert Matovu (9-1, 8 KOs), who campaigned at 200-pounds and was stopped in two rounds by highly-rated cruiserweight contender Umar Salamov in February.
Elsewhere, junior welterweight Sean McComb spoke of an eagerness to produce a world-class performance against Monaco native Hugo Micallef (11-0, 3 KOs) as he returns after recovering from a first-round knockdown to outpoint Ben Crocker in Sheffield last month.
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Mosope Ominiyi
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