A touch of normality returns to the local boxing scene next month when the sport makes a comeback after almost 18 months.

Ryan Walsh, Mikie Webber-Kane and Roni Dean headline a December 10 dinner show at the Holiday Inn North in Norwich.

The appearance of 37-year-old Walsh has been labelled The Last Dance, but the plan is very much a long-term one – he is targeting another British title, this time at lightweight, with the Norwich show more likely to be the launch of his final year of a distinguished career.

“He's definitely not quitting, not retiring, but this is probably his last year, that’s the reality,” said trainer Graham Everett.

“This is his last dance. He wants the lightweight title and we won’t get anything unless we get active. Someone’s going to come after him because he's still a big name. If they think he's past his best … well let’s hope they do.

“He’s never been beaten up and he’s lived the life.”

Webber-Kane – trained in Great Yarmouth by Tony Norman - is a ticking over fight following the postponement of his Southern Area title fight after opponent Robert Caswell pulled out because of injury.

“Rather than sitting back and wait, we’re keeping Mikie active and giving his fans a treat of not having to travel to York Hall again,” Everett said.

“It’s the same with Roni – she has lot of fans in Thetford and I’m sure they will be delighted they only have to make the short trip to Norwich to see her fight.

“These local shows are really important to boxers. It's not easy to get coaches together and transport people 100 miles to London to see them fight.

“It’s been a while since we had a show in the city, but I haven't missed it.

“They did become very difficult. We've all struggled with venues and it's one of them where everything was completely derailed by Covid. We had a busy gym, we had a number of pros. There was a lot of people for me and the rest of the team to keep happy, and what we did do after Covid is, we got a number of shows on fairly quickly and looking back now, it was probably a mistake because the realism is I think a lot of fighters actually didn’t want to fight as much as I would expect them to want to.

“Looking back on some of the previous fighters we had you had Liam Goddard who won the Southern Area title here, Craig Poxton, Billy Bird, Nathan Dale, Iain Martell, Connor Vian and Joe Hurn among others. Sexton kept busy, Ryan Walsh kept busy, Michael Walsh built his career on these home shows which are so, so important. They kept Sam Sexton mandatory for the British heavyweight title - without a couple of home shows that wouldn't happened. He wouldn't have got the British title fight without them.

“Without activity, nothing is happening. Obviously it done a great job for all those fighters, from Southern Area up to the British – the shows kept everyone happy, kept everyone busy and enabled everyone to achieve.”

The worldwide pandemic changed the face of boxing – many fighters around the country couldn’t commit and left the local stage. And the picture has changed – it’s harder now, in a sport which has been affected as badly as any other by social media, where glitzy ‘influencers’ are seen as a bigger attraction, even if the standard of boxing is far from what the Marquess of Queensberry envisaged.

“Social media has changed the whole landscape of boxing,” said Everett. “And probably not for the better. I think sometimes fighters are getting the opportunity on their social media following rather than their boxing ability.

“This is different – we’ve worked hard over the past 10 years with promoter Mervyn Turner, who has been an absolute rock. This Christmas show was his idea – and we hope there will be more to come in 2024.”