Kash Farooq insists he feels no extra pressure going into his contest against Duane Winters.

The current British bantamweight champion, will win the coveted Lonsdale belt outright if he overcomes his Bristol rival on August 17, in a fight that will be shown live on the BBC Scotland channel as well as being streamed on the BBC Sport website.

The 23-year-old Glasgow based fighter’s first six fight were won on points but since then he has stopped all bar one opponent. His record stands at 12-0 with five stoppages. Although respectful of Winters, who has won ten out of 11 fights with 1 KO, he feels his opponent is stepping up a “level”.

“My confidence is high,” says Farooq speaking exclusively to Asian Image. “If you compare the two records, I have faced a higher calibre of opponent. I hit a lot harder too.

"Don’t get me wrong I’m not dismissing him. It’s not the case of just turning up and doing a number on him. “There are those on social media who think this will an easy fight for me. If I read too much into that or start believing that then then those ‘easy’ fights become your hardest. I respect him and I have trained to the same intensity to that when I won the title.”

Farooq became the first Pakistan-born boxer to become British champion when he blitzed Jamie Wilson in 73 seconds last year.

His first defence was a unanimous point win over Iain Butcher. In his last outing, considered by many in the trade as his most impressive performance to date, he stopped mandatory challenger Kyle Williams.

A number of pundits felt the Wolverhampton boxer was the favourite going into the bout but he needed rescuing by the referee in the fifth round.

“It was a tough fight,” reflects Farooq. “He was very confident and talked a good fight. I got the feeling he was looking beyond me. I have had very good write ups in the likes of Boxing Monthly and Boxing News after that win. They know boxing inside out and commented on the improvement I have been making especially since I became a champion.”

Not one to proactively seek extra media coverage but you sense he feels slight disappointment that established Asian media outlets, South of Border, have overlooked his achievements.

“My last three fights have been shown on the TV [mainly on the BBC Scotland channel] and yeah I do get recognised a bit more now,” he states. “A lot of people want to see the belt and take a selfie. My name is established within the trade [media outlets] but not too much outside of that.

“Maybe had I been living in England I would have received more attention. However, that’s not the priority. I need to keep on winning and what happens outside of the ring will take care of itself.”