"What a way to start your ring career," said Bird's coach, the former world champ Billy Murray, speaking from Hong Kong. "The two lads are great figureheads in the ProKick Gym.

"They show the youngsters who come through the doors what can be achieved by hard work and training. It helps that they are also hugely talented and naturally gifted, but there's a lot of sweat there too.

David Bird in action at the Hilton hotel recently in a demo bout against Ryan Dougal"They'll keep young David focused on the task in hand and hopefully they'll also keep him relaxed so he can really enjoy his ring debut."

Because David is so young, the fight in Galway against local lad McEvoy - will take place under strict safety rules. Each of the fighters will wear body shields and head guards and there will be no kicks to the head. David comes from a talented kickboxing family.

His older brother Mark, still just a teenager himself, is in line for an Irish title shot later this spring. He was toasted as a star of the future at the recent ProKick Irish Kickboxing Awards ceremony in Belfast.

For more on kickboxing, including Billy Murray's blog from his trip to China where he is building links for Irish kickboxing, bookmark http://www.prokick.com