Fan-favourite Johnny Fisher is set to challenge for the British heavyweight title after a surprising turn of events.
When Johnny Fisher controversially got the decision over Doncaster’s Dave Allen on the Fury-Usyk 2 undercard at the end of 2024, many thought it exposed the true limits of the ticket-seller from Romford.
When he was knocked out by Allen in their rematch in May of 2025, those criticisms seemed to be proven right. After all, if you lose to the same man twice, you’ve surely found your ceiling.
Those thoughts were still fresh in people’s minds when Fisher took on the lesser-known Ivan Balaz on Matchroom Boxing’s Monaco card last month.
The Slovakian possessed a neat record of 7-0 with 5 KOs, but little of actual substance could be found on his résumé, with his most substantial win coming against Tomas Salek, and the only other opponent with a winning record he’d beaten being an 8-5 Dominik Musil.
It was for these reasons that many reasonably assumed Balaz would be something of a walkover for Fisher, a confidence-booster for him to bag after the heavy Allen defeat and a straightforward debut under the tutelage of Tony Sims – or so it seemed.
Instead, Fisher was badly rocked in the opening round and probably should have received a count in the very same frame.
Still, despite a tougher-than-expected battle, Fisher got the stoppage win a few rounds later, but it did absolutely nothing to silence his critics.
However, it seems as though Fisher will soon get another chance to do just that.
In an interview with iFL TV, Frank Smith, revealed that ‘The Romford Bull’ is currently in discussions to fight Jeamie TKV, the reigning British heavyweight champion, with early March being considered for what would be TKV’s first attempted title defence.
“We’ve been discussing trying to make the TKV fight for the British title. That is a fight that we are very interested in, that is a fight that Johnny wants and the team wants. Let’s see if we can get it done.”
TKV produced somewhat of an upset when he outfought former Olympic medallist Frazer Clarke to win the British title in November, this coming on the back of a failed bid for the same title in a controversial stoppage loss to David Adeleye earlier that same year.
A bull-rushing Fisher (14-1, 12 KOs) is sure to cause problems, despite his ill-form, but the technically-superior TKV (9-2, 5 KOs) will assumably enter as the favourite, as he attempts to kickstart his title reign in style.
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