YORK boxing legend Henry Wharton believes that the longer rounds will suit his protege George Davey as he prepares for another step-up bout this weekend.

Davey faces Stoke's Jamie Stewart on Saturday night's undercard to the British and Commonwealth title fight between Denzel Bentley and Felix Cash at London's York Hall.

The clash, which will be televised live on BT Sport, sees Davey compete over six rounds for the first time as a professional, having solely competed over four rounds through his three pro wins from as many fights.

The contest also sees Davey take on an even higher calibre of opposition in Stewart, a fighter that defeated prospect Michael Hennessy Jr and drew with former kickboxing world Florian Marku last year.

Regardless of the opposition, Davey's trainer and manager, the former three-time world title contender Wharton believes that his man will be more than ready for the rise in both opponent and rounds come Saturday night.

“I think it will suit George because opponents over four rounds, they can hold on for a couple of rounds and they are just looking to finish the course," said Wharton.

“But six rounds is a lot more and it tests your will. George is accurate too and I think that as the rounds go on, the opponents will get more tired and George’s accuracy will come into play more and I can’t see them taking punishment for that long, to be honest.

“This is something that we’ve built up to for a long time, George’s accuracy and evasiveness being key.

“When George turned pro, it was always in the forefront of my mind, because of his skillset and how good he is.

“I wasn’t expecting George to have 10 warm-up fights, if you like, and I think that George will be boxing for titles long before 10 fights.

“In his last fight (against Jeff Thomas), he fought a winner and it shows what they (Queensbury Promotions) think of him as well as me.

“We don’t want to hold George back and pad up his record, we want to get up out there and I think, with the way we’re pushing him, it’ll extend his boxing life and he’ll be able to quicker, faster.

“With the way that we’re pushing him, he’ll be more than ready for the big occasion when it comes.”

Speaking in the build-up to the fight, Davey said that he has been patiently training in the gym since his September win over Jeff Thomas.

Wharton hailed Davey's work ethic, particularly amid the uncertainty around boxing shows going ahead amid the pandemic.

“It’s good because it’s been hard for me to keep the lads motivated, as you can imagine, given that there’s been no dates looming, so it’s been difficult," he said.

“But we’ve stuck in there as a team, helped each other along and at least now we can see light at the end of the tunnel.

“It’s almost like a saving grace that we now know when George is out and then after that we’re expecting the shows to come thick and fast, fingers crossed.

“I’ve been working a lot with George on his strength and his skills. George is multi-skilled, but we want to top-up on everything that we’ve got.

“We want to be ahead of the game, not level with it. We don’t want to be found wanting in any particular department."