Barrow light heavyweight Mike McGoldrick will be stepping into the ring for the first time in nearly eight months when he faces Cambridge's Gianni Antoh in Bolton on Friday night.

McGoldrick has won his first three professional fights, although he has been made to wait for his fourth after injury prevented him from competing during the spring.

Having seen his fellow Barrovian Liam Conroy compete for the British and European titles in recent months, the 34-year-old can't wait to spring back into action on what will be a big night for boxing in this area.

McGoldrick said: "I was due to fight in March, but I picked up a bit of an injury in sparring, so it's good to back, really.

"I've got through this training camp and that's almost finished, so the fight is definitely going ahead.

"This fight was supposed to be six rounds, but since then they've put on a few more matches on the show, so it's had to go down to four rounds.

"In physical terms, I'm more than prepared and I just want to get it done with. When you're at the end of camp, it's a bit of a weird place to be because you've done all the hard work and you just want to get it over and done with because you've become sick of talking about it."

Despite the long gap between his last bout - his points victory over Lewis van Poetsch in Manchester last November - McGoldrick has been hard at it in the intervening period.

"I didn't leave the gym, really," he said: "Even when I had my injury, it was just an injury I couldn't fight with, rather than an injury I couldn't train with, so I've been pretty much training from November to now."

McGoldrick is one of three fighters from the area in action at the Bolton Whites Hotel, with unbeaten Barrow featherweight Ross Cooksey stepping into the ring for the first time since signing with MTK Global earlier in the year against an as yet unnamed opponent.

Meanwhile, Ulverston super lightweight Ryan Watson will be up against Qasim Hussain of Sheffield.

McGoldrick said: "I think Ross has the same manager, but he has a different trainer now [Johnney Roye] in a different gym with a different style to pick up, so I'm looking forward to seeing how he progresses because he's really, really talented."