Already a K1-style and Full-Contact kickboxing champ, the east Belfast man will challenge for the WKN Amateur Thai-boxing title in Italy when he faces native Lorenzo Piras.

McBlain ventures to Sardinia on (Today) Thursday for Saturday’s contest along with Prokick stable-mate Gary Hamilton, 33, who feels in the best shape of his career, said: “I have put so much into the sport and I owe it to myself to become a world champion again."
Former world champion Billy Murray, the duo’s coach at Prokick Gym, said: “I’m excited about the two lads going into these big fights at crucial stages of their careers.

“Gary Hamilton has been with me for a very long time but it has been a while since I saw the hunger in him that once made him a world champion.

And young Karl McBlain is so freakishly big and strong for the light-welterweight division, he is a star in the making.”

More on the pair travelling to Sardinia can be found right here on prokick.com