The two heavyweights will face off in a fight scheduled for eight rounds at Wembley Arena on the under card of Conor Benn’s WBA continental welterweight title fight against Sebastian Formella.
Alen Babic has been a refreshing addition to the heavyweight scene after his breakthrough performance at Fight Camp where he knocked out Shawndell Winters in two rounds.
Since then he has stopped Irish heavyweight Niall Kennedy inside three rounds.
Babic emergence on the heavyweight scene has been a quick one. He was signed to Dillian Whyte’s management stable in 2019, after being highly impressed with the fighter’s heart and power after just five rounds of sparing him.
He is currently 5-0 as a professional and has won all his professional fights by way of knockout.
The Croatian is a passionate man and his savage alter ego make him an entertaining prospect. Additionally, to that Babic is an aggressive fighter who takes the fight directly to his opponents and always looks to get the stoppage.
Questions have been raised on whether Babic may be too small to mix it with the big boys of the division and the fight with Little will certainly give answers to this question.
Tom Little has had a long turbulent journey as a heavyweight, the fighter from Hatfield, Hertfordshire boasts a record of 10-8 in a career spanning across over ten years.
Little is without a win in this last four fights after taking on talented opponents in those bouts. His last win was a TKO win over Josh Sandland in 2017, since then he has lost fights against Filip Hrgovic, Daniel Dubois, David Price and Mahammadrasul Majidov within the distance.
However, Little looks to be in the best shape of his career so far and in the pre-fight press conference Eddie Hearn revealed that many in the boxing world think Little could possibly cause an upset.
In the press conference yesterday, Babic went on a furious rant at Little, claiming his ‘friend’ has disrespected him by taking the side of rival Filip Hrgovic in recent interviews.
“I said to everyone Tom’s a great guy he won’t disrespect me, I told everyone, then you disrespected me the whole time.”
He went on to add: “After I beat you, unless you apologise, we cannot be friends I’m telling you right now because you are a sell-out brother.”
Alen Babic has openly expressed his desire to face the big punching Hrgovic in an all Croatian grudge match. The rivalry between the two is intensifying after constant back and forth between the fighters and their teams.
In his rant he also took aim at Eddie Hearn for underestimating him and questioning his weight.
Babic made it clear that he intends to add another early knockout to his record.
“I’m going to knock him out in one round.” He added: “I’m going to do the job and do the job fast because savage is mad”
Despite the explosive rant Babic did acknowledge that Little will be the biggest test of his career thus far.
Tom Little was his usual entertaining self at the presser as he responded to Hearn and Babic in his usual quirky style. At one point he referred to himself as a “6ft 6 Gypopotamus” and promise the fans “blood, snot and guts”.
The Englishman echoed that he is in the best shape of his career and will be the best version of himself and intends to go to war with his opponent on Saturday night.
Little said: “I’m hungry, I’ve made sure that I have left no stone unturned…and all you are watching on Saturday night watch me show what I know what I am capable of doing.”
He went on to tell Babic: “You’re fighting a better me than Filip and all the rest of them ever thought put together…I’m here to do damage.”
The bout between the former friends will no doubt be an entertaining one and add to a high-quality card of boxing.
The fight will be another hurdle for Alen Babic and the clash with Tom Little will give the public a clearer idea of how far ‘the savage’ can go in the heavyweight division.