JIM WATT has advised Charlie Flynn to avoid trying to emulate Olympic gold medallist Luke Campbell's first round knock-out of Andy "Thunder" Harris, when he takes on the Gloucester journeyman at the Newcastle Metro Radio Arena, tomorrow night.
London 2012 bantamweight champion Campbell stopped Harris after 1min 28 seconds of his professional debut back in July 2013, but Watt, who was ringside that night in his capacity as Sky Sports' expert analyser, says Flynn must focus only on his own performance and not try and trump Campbell's pugilistic pyrotechnics.
While with Flynn having been forced to pull out of his second scheduled outing in the professional ranks back on March 6 due to a back injury, illustrious former WBC lightweight champion Watt has no doubt that the Newarthill boxer will benefit most significantly from a solid points victory at the end of six rounds from his big night out in Newcastle.
"The first thing I would say to Charlie is to forget all about what Luke Campbell did to Harris. This is about Charlie Flynn and nothing else and what Charlie needs right now is as much ring time as he can get. This is his first six rounder and if he got a good points win under his belt he will get far more benefit from that than anything else," said Watt.
The former British, European and world lightweight champion continued: "So Charlie must make sure he is not trying to compete with Luke Campbell yet at the same time he can look to Campbell as a fine yardstick of how to develop his career and build himself into the professional ranks.
"But Harris is an experienced pro with 28 fights behind him and Charlie will find he is probably a step up in quality from his first opponent Ibrar Riyaz and all that matters is that he gets the win and banks the experience he gets in the process and uses that to move on."
Watt has no fears about the back injury that caused the 21 year-old's withdrawal from a previously scheduled March 6 outing and cites the example of Olympic super-heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, who will top the bill tomorrow after he recovered from a five month injury sabbatical caused by a stress fracture in his back.
The great Watt said: "It is the nature of boxing and the intensity of the preparation that is needed to get yourself in the best possible shape that you will suffer injuries and it is the same with all sports.
"But if you look at big Joshua then he is coming back from a stress fracture to the back which is far more serious than Charlie's injury and he is ready to go.
"So If anything I think the call-off back in March will only make Charlie more determined to put on a show and I am confident he will catch the eye tomorrow as he is a kid who has it all."
Watt also believes that Flynn is lucky to have veteran trainer Peter Harrison in his corner and is confident he will steer the young fight tyro to a triumph on the Tyne tomorrow night: "Peter Harrison is one of the most respected trainers in the business and he has seen it all and done it all with Scott (Harrison) all the way up to world title level.
"He is cool under pressure and very capable of changing a fighter's game plan if it isn't working out as a bout progresses. So Charlie is in safe hands there and I'm pretty sure that tomorrow night we will see a few wee things that Peter has added and developed in young Flynn's style over the last five months since his professional debut."
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