TRAINER Henry Wharton has lauded his “wrecking machine” heavyweight Mitchell Barton ahead of the prospect’s debut next Saturday night.

Barton makes his professional bow on the undercard to the blockbuster heavyweight clash between unbeaten stars Daniel Dubois and Joe Joyce, which will be broadcast live on BT Sport.

The 22-year-old is raring to kickstart his career in the paid ranks, having penned his promotional deal with Hall of Famer Frank Warren in December and originally been scheduled to fight in May before the pandemic struck.

After months spent patiently working under the tutelage of York boxing legend Wharton, ‘The Bull’ is ready to be unleashed, says his mentor.

“For Mitchell, the future is bright,” Wharton said. “He’s level-headed and he’s come from a good family and he’s got the right people around him.

“And ultimately, he wants to be a successful boxer.

“The hardest thing for me is keeping someone like him at bay because he’s been constantly asking me about his next fight and his number of fights.

“We need to take it step by step with him but Mitchell is so eager to go and he doesn’t shy away from a fight. He beat the Team GB number one in the National ABAs and went it turned into a little bit of war, that’s when Mitchell found himself.

“I’ve got to take him away sometimes from that because he is a wrecking machine – that’s why we call him The Bull!”

The aforementioned bill is another huge one for one of Wharton’s boxers and is a reflection of the work put in behind scenes at his Acomb gym over a number of years.

“This bill is absolutely massive, it’s a long time since we’ve seen anything as big as this, outside of the world title fights,” he added.

“It’s a 50-50 fight and that’s why it’s so eagerly awaited. We can all make our picks and make an argument for both.

“I am expecting Mitchell to be part of the televised part of the bill. And what an opportunity for him.

“It just shows how the gym is going from strength to strength and it shows that we’re doing things in the boxing world.

“And we’re going to go on from this and I believe these lads will go on to challenge for major honours.

“And I’m not just saying this because they’re ours, but these fighters are special. They’re in the gym every day, twice a day and they don’t stop.

“I believe, having watched this sport for long enough, that these kids are going to go right to the top.”

Like almost all current elite sport, Barton’s debut fight will take place behind closed doors. It’s an experience with which Wharton is familiar having been in George Davey’s corner for his September win over Jeff Thomas.

“We’ll head down on Wednesday in our bubble and as soon as we arrive, we’ll be tested in the hotel. Then we’ll go to our room and we can’t move from there until we get the all-clear.

“It’s a little bit of hardship, but we’ve got to do it and we’ve got to do all that we can to keep this virus maintained at its lowest and hopefully have rid of it.

“If you’re meant to stay in to stop the virus from spreading and stop it from affecting anyone else, you do it.

“With George, everything was pretty straightforward when we were at the hotel and things ran really smoothly.”