JACK Cullen has been handed a huge opportunity against Avni Yildirim – who most recently challenged pound-for-pound king Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez.

The seemingly unlikely clash will take place as part of Eddie Hearn’s ‘Fight Camp’ outdoors in the grounds of Matchroom Boxing’s HQ in Brentwood, Essex on July 31.

Turkish star Yildirim heads into battle on the back of an unsuccessful challenge against arguably the sport’s biggest name in Mexican Alvarez.  

Canelo was too good at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, defending his two world super-middleweight titles via third-round stoppage.

It is an unlikely journey though for Yildirim to go from Canelo to Cullen. The 29-year-old has won 21 and lost three as a professional, all his defeats coming at the top level, including one against Chris Eubank Jnr in 2017.

Little Lever’s Meat Cleaver will look to cause a shock though and build on his career-best win against John Docherty last November.

It is certainly a fight that intrigues Hearn who has taken a liking to former English champion Cullen’s fan-friendly style and his vocal support.

“One of my favourites of the first card is Avni Yildirim against Jack Cullen,” the promoter said.

“I’ll be brutally honest, when I did the deal with Avni Yildirim (for the Canelo fight in February), it came with a comeback fight.

“So I said ‘if you want a comeback fight, we want something that’s quite compelling what about Jack Cullen?’.

“They looked at Jack Cullen’s record and said ‘yeah, we’ll have him’. But I don’t know, is Jack Cullen a million miles away from the level of Avni Yildirim and does he go in there and it’s a really tough night?

“I tell you what, he’s always in exciting fights, there’s a chance for Jack Cullen to tear up the script.”

Cullen is no stranger to ‘Fight Camp’ having been part of the first incarnation last year when he drew with Zak Chelli last August, the concept created to give TV viewers a new spectacle when events were being held behind closed doors.

A rematch was proposed by the British Boxing Board of Control, in what would have been a final eliminator for the British super-middleweight title, but 27-year-old Cullen, now trained by Chorley’s former world title challenger Michael Jennings, has instead elected to pursue an opportunity against Yildirim.

The July 31 show, headlined by Conor Benn’s meeting with Mexico’s Adrian Grandos is the first of three weeks of Fight Camp action that are the start of Matchroom’s partnership with streaming platform DAZN after moving on from their long-term agreement with Sky Sports.

Details of the limited tickets available are still to be confirmed.