Ryan Walsh returns to the ring on Friday for a fight trainer Graham Everett says will be of British title standard.

The 38-year-old from Cromer fights Reece Mould for the new WBA Continental Europa lightweight title in Sheffield.

Mould, 29, from Doncaster, is the ‘home’ fighter, and one of promoter Izzy Asif’s GBM Sports' big hopes.

But Walsh has been up against some of the best in the business, and Everett says defeat is not in their vocabulary

“As Ryan has said himself, every fight is a must-win fight,” said the Norwich trainer, who has been in Walsh’s corner since his pro debut in 2008. ”He treats everything as a must-win. He wants to win, obviously, to keep his career alive. You're never finished, but it's not going to be helpful to his career if he did lose.

“But he never thinks about losing. He's prepared for this fight like he's prepared for every other fight. He's in great shape, absolutely fantastic shape. We obviously monitor his sparring closely, he doesn't over-spar now, he hasn't done for the last few years. He's got massive experience, he needs that sparring just to get that combat fitness, and get his timing right. Trust me, he's looked very, very good. He's looked as good as he did pre the Jazza Dickens first fight (four years ago), which fell through, when he was in such a good place for that fight. Preparation was great and to be fair he was in a fantastic place, but obviously we lost that fight because Jazza had Covid.

“I know every trainer, every camp, always says their fighter's in great shape. But he is in great shape. He's in very, very good shape. He's in as good a shape as we possibly can be. So it's by the grace of god now isn't it?

“You know, a little bit of luck – if there's any luck to be had, hopefully that goes our way, but it's an absolutely great fight and one we're all looking forward to and I know for a fact all the fans, the promoter, everybody concerned in the show is really looking forward to Ryan Walsh v Reece Mould.

“This is good enough for a British title fight and certainly good enough to get everybody's attention and everybody's attention will be on this fight next Friday night.”