Rhodes ready to impress on the big stage

Rhodes won all four rounds on his debut in the pro ranks against Frank Greaves just five weeks ago, and he’s out to make a statement against O’Brien on the undercard of the Hull derby between Olympic gold medalist Luke Campbell and city rival Tommy Coyle at Craven Park.

Despite O’Brien’s poor record of 10 defeats in his 10 pro outings to date, Rhodes is expecting a tear-up come Saturday night.

He said: “He (O’Brien) has a poor record, but he’s fighting in his home city of Hull and he’ll have his friends and family there, so I am expecting him to come looking for a win.

“I’ve seen a couple of clips of him and he looks a little more ambitious and less mobile than Greaves, so hopefully the opportunity to get him out of there will present itself and I will try to take it.”

Rhodes suffered a cut above his eye during the Greaves fight after an over-eager lunge when looking for a big one-punch knockout, and the Scarborough man knows he needs to be more methodical this time around, without the emotions and added pressures of being on debut.

“I learned on my debut that the slightest mistake can cost you,” added Rhodes.

“I lunged in and got cut, I won’t be more cautious in this fight as I want to entertain, but I need to keep a better distance and fire my jab more rather than trying to please the crowd.”

Rhodes has been busy selling tickets and has recorded over £7,000 in sales, which he is delighted by.

He added: “I thought I might struggle with this fight being only five weeks after my debut, but I’ve sold about 120, which I’m pleased with.

“The support I have received has been great and I hope they make the same amount of noise on Saturday that they did in Barnsley as that gave me a great buzz, it was like a shot of adrenaline.

“It is a big, big stage to be fighting on in only my second pro bout and I’m looking forward to rubbing shoulders with some of the sport’s big names.”

Follow @SN_Sport for Daniel Gregory’s live Tweets from Craven Park on Saturday.