Nikki Bascome, the Bermuda boxer, is poised to make his professional home debut at the Fairmont Southampton next month.

He will face Canadian Kru Joe Marchand-Tipping on the undercard of Teresa Perozzi’s WBA middleweight title defence against American Kali Reis on Friday, November 21.

Bascome and Tipping will do battle in a four-round junior middleweight bout that will be the hometown boxer’s first since recording a unanimous points victory against American George Quintero in his professional debut in Florida in February.

“Nikki is really excited about fighting at home because he wants people see him perform,” Allan “Forty” Rego, Bascome’s coach, said. “It’s a good thing for him to be able to fight at home and I hope this is the first of many.

“When Nikki fought away he pulled 65 people from here out there, so I think he will pull even more people this time. People want to see this up-and-coming fighter.”

Rego admits that he knows very little about Tipping, the owner and head instructor of Fifth Round Martial Arts and Training Academy in Stratford, Ontario, who boasts extensive professional experience in Muay Thai.

“I haven’t seen him [Tipping] in action,” Rego said. “but we are not going to be overlooking him.

“We are going to treat him like he is Floyd Mayweather, so we are going to put our work in and hopefully get to where we need to be so that we can perform.”

Tipping is no stranger to the Island. He travelled to Bermuda to coach his wife, Shelby Marchand-Tipping, in her debut win against Talia Iris at Teacher’s Rugby Fight Night XVI in April.

Bascome will step up his preparations when he travels to Orlando, Florida, next week to get some sparring under his belt.

“Nikki is in a good frame of mind,” Rego added. “He’s training really hard and is ready to get some good sparring.”

Rego insists that he is not bothered that Bascome has not fought competitively in nearly ten months.

“There’s definitely no ring rust,” Rego said. “We train just the same as if we have a fight next week. That’s how I have him geared up.

“You always see him running, training, and putting in his work, so there’s no rest for him and definitely no ring rust. That’s not happening and you are going to see a sharper Nikki than you have ever seen before.”

Assisting with Bascome’s preparations is Troy Darrell, the Bermuda Sports Hall of Fame boxer.

“Right now we have Troy here working with us and he will be working with me during the fight as well,” Rego said. “I will probably be the cut man so Troy will have to take the ring.”