All you need to know: Billy Joe Saunders vs Martin Murray- profiles, venue, record, prediction

We give the showdown lowdown ahead of Billy Joe Saunders vs Martin Murray for WBO middleweight title tonight

WBO Super-Middleweight World Champion Billy Joe Saunders and challenger Martin Murray clash on this Friday's main event at The SSE Arena, Wembley, shown live on Sky Sports and DAZN .

Four-time World Title challenger Murray (39-5-1, 17 KOs) stands in the way of unification fights for Saunders in 2021, and the St Helens man is more determined than ever to finally land a World Title of his own and put his rivalry with Saunders to bed after their scheduled meeting in 2018 fell through twice.

Saunders has been recently linked with big fights with Canelo Alvarez and Callum Smith who will now get their opportunity to unify on December 19th, ahead of any potential clash with Saunders in 2021.

The show promises to be the last of the behind-closed-doors issue that has marred the sport for several months, and will take place at Wembley Arena before the move to the O2 Arena for Anthony Joshua vs Kubrat Pulev next weekend.

In an interesting contest between two long-time rivals, there is likely to be fireworks on Friday night as the two top a superb night of action and we see the return to the ring of 'superb'.

Here is what you need to know ahead of tonight's middleweight contest:

Billy Joe Saunders

Nickname: Superb Age: 31 Height: 5ft 11in Stance: Southpaw First professional fight: 28th February 2009 Record: 29-0 (14 wins by KO)

'Superb' has had three very convincing victories in his last three fights, with the first coming with a stoppage victory over Charles Adamu in Manchester back in December 2018, after Saunders inflicted severe punsihment on his opponent forcing him to retire at the start of the fourth on the stool, and allow the Briton to hand him his first shot at the higher weight at a world title after moving up from middle after becoming WBO world champion previously.

He then claimed the vacant WBO super middlweight world title belt, with victory over Shefat Isufi at the Lamex Stadium in Stevenage, putting on a dominant display to record a unanimous decision by the judges with scorecards at 117-111, 118-110, 120-108, leading to the Briton calling for the top fighters and a potential shot at unification.

His most recent win came against Marcelo Estaban Coceres on the undercard of the YouTube fighter between Ksi and Logan Paul at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The 5'11 southpaw managed to force a stoppage in a difficult contest for the Briton in the 11th round, where he scored three kncokdowns in the round, blitzing Coceres with a barrage of shots when the referee stepped in and ended the fight and allowed Saunder's pursuit of becoming unified world champion to begin.

Martin Murray

Nickname: N/A Age: 38 Height: 6ft 0in Stance: Orthodox First professional fight: 22nd September 2007

Record: 29-0 (14 wins by KO)

Murray has challenged for the world title on three occasions previously in his career and is 2-1 from his last three fights beginning with a loss to Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam back in December 2018 at middleweight on majority decision with scorecards at 112,117, 114-114 and 112-116 at the Manchester Arena. He in turn lost his WBC silver middleweight belt and a shot at Canelo Alvarez for the WBC world title in the middleweight division.

However Murray began his comeback from defeat stringing together two solid victories, with his first against Rui Manuel Pavanito at the Olympia Liverpool, where he scored a dominant display and earned the decision on points in the ten round contest with judge Steve Gray scoring the contest at 99-92.

This was followed by another decision victory over Sladan Janjanin at the Olympia Liverpool once again before the global pandemic struck at the back end of 2019. He fought in the eight round contest taking the victory on a points decision with referee Mark Lyson scoring the contest at 80-72 and proving to be another step in a positive direction for the three-time former world title challenger who would get his shot at the higher weight against an undefeated Billy Joe Saunders.

Prediction:

The fight will be a tough contest for Martin Murray who takes a big leap up in quality against the undefeated warrior Billy Joe Saunders who will be looking to dispatch of Murray and end the war of words between the two and move onto his own hopes of world title unfiication against the winner of Canelo Alvarez vs Callum Smith in 2021.

Prediction: Billy Joe Saunders by stoppage in Rounds 5-8