Abdullah Mason vs. Sam Noakes | DAZN - 22 November 2025

[Taansend]

Is Sam Noakes a traveller?

[The Law]

I expect Mason to win by stoppage within 6 rounds but I really hope Sam Noakes proves me wrong

[JamesPhilips]

Is Sam Noakes a traveller?

Yes. He’s travelling to Saudi Arabia for this fight.

[Taansend]

Is Sam Noakes a traveller?

Yes. He’s travelling to Saudi Arabia for this fight.

So Brian Norman & Devin Haney are also travellers

[Ruthless-RKO]

Is Sam Noakes a traveller?

Yes. He’s travelling to Saudi Arabia for this fight.

So Brian Norman & Devin Haney are also travellers

Benavidez and Yarde too.

[MightyWarrior]

I don’t think Sam is a traveller, it’s usually mentioned on here if a fighter is.

I was pretty encouraged to hear Shakur Stevenson say Sam’s a really hard puncher, because he’s going to need it against Mason, but then shakur came out this week and said flyweight Bam Rodriguez is also a hard puncher, after sparring him, so now I’m less encouraged

[Kilburn]

Mason has looked the business for sure, but I suspect Noakes would have also dished out beatings to all of Mason’s opponents.

They’re both facing their biggest threat so far on Saturday night.

[Ruthless-RKO]

[Ruthless-RKO]

Mum's the word: Sam Noakes on a mission to prove doubters wrong vs. Abdullah Mason

Sam Noakes has said his mum Sharon has been driven ‘mad’ by the negative comments ahead of his WBO world lightweight clash with Abdullah Mason on Saturday night.

But the Kent puncher insists everyone writing him off will be held to account once he upsets the odds and becomes Maidstone’s first ever world champion.

Noakes (17-0, 15 KOs), The Ring's No. 8-rated lightweight, is a significant underdog with the bookmakers for his showdown with highly regarded blue-chip prospect Mason (19-0, 17 KOs), one place below him at No. 9, at ANB Arena, Riyadh on Saturday night.

The 28-year-old has had no problem with people writing him off ahead of the fight but says Sharon, the driving force behind his career and that of his fighting brother Sean, is not quite as understanding.

“If you go on any of the posts online, everyone is giving me stick and slating me,” Noakes told The Ring in Riyadh on Monday.

“My mum has been going mad about it. But everyone will be held to their comments afterwards because I just think I’m going to prove them wrong.

“They don’t know about me just because I’m from England, a little town called Maidstone, it doesn’t mean I can’t fight. It doesn’t bother me, really because I feel like they just don’t know yet. Mason has been promoted incredibly well and he’s a superstar over there. But after Saturday, that will be where I am.

“I don’t take offence to it, it’s just water under the bridge isn’t it? They are just going to be wrong.”

Noakes is also certain that Mason, still only 21, will be in for a surprise once the first bell goes in the Saudi capital.

“I will 100 per cent be showing him something he’s never seen before,” he added. “I feel like my style, or me as a fighter, you watch it from the outside, it looks easy to deal with.

“I think once you're in there, it's a completely different kettle of fish. Everything looks easy from the outside, but dealing with it on the night, it's going to be a bit of a shock for him.

“I’m going in there to win, I’m naturally the bigger man as well and I don’t think that’s really what he’s seen before.

"He has probably sparred people that can punch hard, it’s not like he’s unaccustomed to being hit hard but I feel like, in terms of ring dominance, he won’t have seen that before.”

Noakes was also keen to point out that he is no overnight success given his march to this point began way back in September 2019 when he made his professional debut only a few months after winning the ABAs as an amateur.

He said: “Obviously it has not just happened overnight, I've been pro six years now, slowly working up the ranks, up the WBO ranks, and then that's why it’s not like I don’t belong here.

“Once it got made it starts to become real and now I've got 36 minutes or less to become champion of the world, and it feels unreal to say it.

“Every time I do a run or a bit of cardio or when I’m alone, doing them late night runs or them early morning runs, and you're thinking about it, and you feel it in your chest.

“I’m just so excited. It’s hard to say how I feel because you’ve got to bottle it down but I’ll end up booing like a baby after the fight, I know I will. I just feel like it’s been a long time coming.”

The Ring IV: Night of the Champions takes place on Saturday, November 22 and will stream live on DAZN PPV from 3pm ET/8pm GMT.

[skanksta]

Let's hope he's right..
C'mon Midge !

[MightyWarrior]

Midge?? Please tell me that’s not his nickname

[Ruthless-RKO]

Midge?? Please tell me that’s not his nickname

it is...

[Manchester Hitman]

I’m not sold on Mason being this unbelievable superstar. The kid is good, he hits fast and hard off the southpaw stance, but he looks open defensively to me. I hope Noakes is able to get into the fight and test what he’s like in the pocket; is he strong enough at only 21 to hold Sam off.

Cracking fight - I’m going for Noakes to cause an upset on points

[Kilburn]

I’m not sold on Mason being this unbelievable superstar. The kid is good, he hits fast and hard off the southpaw stance, but he looks open defensively to me. I hope Noakes is able to get into the fight and test what he’s like in the pocket; is he strong enough at only 21 to hold Sam off.

Cracking fight - I’m going for Noakes to cause an upset on points

Glorious mate, this is the kind of predication I’m looking for.

Noakes does seem a tad stiff at times and lacks a bit of flair, but he’s definitely got something on his own punches. If he can take something out of Mason early, things could even up pretty damn quick.

[Ruthless-RKO]

‘Sam Noakes’ speed and timing gives him the edge over Abdullah Mason’

One of Sam Noakes’ former opponents believes his fight on Saturday with Abdullah Mason will show the true extent of the American’s potential.

The 28-year-old Noakes and Mason are to contest the vacant WBO lightweight title most recently held by Keyshawn Davis when at the ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia they fight on the undercard of David Benavidez-Anthony Yarde.

Ryan Walsh fought Noakes, his fellow Englishman, as recently as December, and despite his experience and ambition was convincingly outboxed on the night of Noakes’ most mature performance over 12 rounds.

That the undefeated Noakes has won 15 of his 17 fights inside the distance and is one of the biggest fighters in their competitive division means that Saturday’s contest has widely come to be viewed as one that will be won by either the 21-year-old Mason’s natural abilities or Noakes’ considerable physical strength.

Walsh, however, considers Noakes to be a vastly superior boxer than he is given credit for, and to the extent that he considers Noakes to be a narrow favourite on account of his under-appreciated speed and timing – and therefore believes that if Mason defeats him it will show that Mason is as good as his many admirers insist.

“Very good,” he told Boxing Scene when asked how good Noakes is. “World class, I’d say, and he’s going to get a chance to prove it, ‘cause you don’t get given world titles; you don’t get given world-title shots.

“He has deceptive speed and timing. Everything he looks like he’s going to be good at, he obviously is – which is his [physical] strength – but I found his speed and timing were very deceptive.

“Through no fault of his own, his experience, I suppose, is a weakness you’d give him, but it’s not really a physical one. His physical weakness has not been shown, but a weakness you’d give him is his experience – in the ring, I wouldn’t even say his IQ ain’t high, he’s got a good IQ.

“Mason is an unknown quantity. Great record; very good stock. A southpaw; undefeated American with massive knockout rate; 17 knockouts in 19 fights is no joke. But he’s a bit of an unknown quantity. I’ve heard people I really respect in boxing say really good things about him.

“This fight will decide how good Mason is, I think, and how his future’s going to go, because this is a really great crossroads fight for two young, undefeated fighters. This is the big question-mark fight for them both – how good he is, and we’re going to find out a lot more about Mason in this fight than any fight he’s had. He’s fighting a young, hungry, undefeated, big-punching English lad who’s a British, Commonwealth and European champion. He’s fighting one of the best over this side of the water, so how good he is is going to be defined in this fight.

“Strengths, clearly, to look at him is his size and the length of the lad, for a lightweight, and being a southpaw – that’s a help, especially when you’re a fighter like myself who never really got on with southpaws. That’s a definite strength for me. His size; his length; we don’t really know about his [physical] strength, though he’s got 17 knockouts.

“For both of the lads, at this level, experience [is a potential weakness]. ‘Cause they’ve had such good careers, and so many knockouts, they haven’t had a lot of ring time, have they? So it’s going to come down to that stuff that we don’t see – the gym spars and the gym workouts – that fill those gaps in.”

Walsh, who regardless considers Wales’ retired Lee Selby to be the finest opponent of his career, was then asked if that meant that he agreed with the observers who believe that Saturday’s fight could be coming too soon for the growing Mason, and he responded: “No, this fight is a rare fight where you’ve got two fighters – it’s a great world-title fight – [at their physical peak and] if they weren’t as good as they are they’d have had those big tests, but they’ve both not put a foot wrong.

“You’ve got a highly touted American and a highly touted English lad; it’s a really interesting, intriguing fight, and I don’t think Noakes holds any extra experience over Mason. For both of them, it’s what they’re doing in the gym that we don’t see that’ll probably be the big tell. Noakes probably has an advantage there with a gym mate [Henry Turner] who’s a full-blown southpaw a weight above.

“If Noakes wins he’ll do what he’s predicting he’ll do which is knock him out. Mason has been decked before. Though – and I’m sure Mason’s well aware – Noakes carries power. The Noakes win by knockout is the most likely path for him to win.

“Mason’s best way to win is to try and outbox and out-fiddle – not take anything big off Noakes, who looks like he does have the game-changer, and having fought him, he’s definitely got good power. But the biggest surprise with Noakes was his speed.

“My head says Mason points; my heart says Noakes knockout. I’ve seen Noakes end people and just bludgeon them to the point that they just jack – I don’t think Mason will jack. I think he’s at a point where Noakes could clean him and hurt him and just be too much, or Mason is this good and he can stay away from Noakes and fiddle him about and be in the southpaw stance and not let him use his jab, ‘cause I was really impressed with his jab and how he dictated the fight with me with his left hand.

“[Noakes has] got very good timing; he’s very good with his uppercuts; he has to try and manhandle him every opportunity as well. Noakes could steamroll him. I’m going Noakes knockout with a bullish, manhandling performance, and hoping that my head’s wrong with how good and slick Mason could be.

“This is Noakes’ chance to knock the doors off and announce himself on the lightweight scene. He’s a future light welterweight and there’s some massive fights for him there.

“[My prediction is] Noakes, KO – I was on the fence until I started talking – in a career-best performance and then there’s some huge fights for him after that. Once you’re a world champion, all the money’s at junior welterweight for him.”

[THEBUTCH]

Noakes hasn't put a foot wrong so far in his career. I like his old school manner...minimal fuss, solid work rate and if the stoppage is there for the taking he'll duly oblige.

I'd love to see Noakes pull this one off, but I think speed is going to be the deciding factor and Sam will be a step or two behind. If he can find that injection of pace, without compromising his defence & stamina, then maybe he could run Mason close.

[Ruthless-RKO]

weigh-in

[Ruthless-RKO]

Weigh-in Report - Anthony Yarde Lighter Than David Benavidez - Plus undercard

Light heavyweight for Benavidez's WBC world title, 12 rounds
David Benavidez (30-0, 24 KOs), 174.3 pounds, Miami, Florida
Anthony Yarde (27-3, 24 KOs), 173.9 pounds, Ilford, London

Welterweight for Norman's WBO belt, 12 rounds
Brian Norman Jr (28-0, 22 KOs, 2 NC), 146 pounds, Conyers, Georgia
Devin Haney (32-0, 15 KOs, 1 NC), 146.6 pounds, Las Vegas, Nevada

Ring, IBF, WBC, WBA junior bantamweight unification, 12 rounds
Jesse 'Bam' Rodriguez (22-0, 15 KOs), 114.6lbs, San Antonio, Texas
Fernando Daniel Martinez (18-0, 9 KOs), 113.2lbs, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Vacant WBO lightweight title, 12 rounds
Abdullah Mason (19-0, 17 KOs), 134 pounds, Cleveland, Ohio
Sam Noakes (17-0, 15 KOs), 134.9 pounds, Maidstone, Kent

[MightyWarrior]

Goooooooooo Sam!!!

He’s looking ultra confident as well he should. Two thoughts, he looked very strong on a couple of fights I was watching earlier on - strong and a very solid puncher, stronger than the young American maybe.

secondly, I don’t know if the American has a weak chin or not, because if you think about it Naz had an excellent chin, but he went over multiple times. Got up and knocked the other geezer out

[MightyWarrior]

Who is the strange blonde lady they have interviewing the fighters? She seems like she’s just come down from a different solar system.

[TheLeprechaun]

Very very big step up in class here for Sam.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Fight Night!!

[smiling assassin]

I think will find out in this fight if Noakes carries the strength and power up to world level. I have been watching Mason in the build up to this and think he could get bullied up close but we don’t know how strong moakes is at the highest level

[rd350lc]

Is this one first up on the main card guys?

[Ruthless-RKO]

Is this one first up on the main card guys?

No.