Paul McCloskey has won all 19 fights in his professional career

Paul McCloskey will now fight Daniel Rasilla for the European light-welterweight title after Souleymane M'baye pulled out on Friday.

M'baye has relinquished the belt after a bicep injury forced him to miss the 6 November contest in Magherafelt.

Promoter Barry Hearn has moved quickly to secure Spanish champion "Cobra" Rasilla as M'baye's replacement.

"Rasilla jumped at the chance when it was offered to him - he sees this as a massive opportunity," said Hearn.

He added: ""M'baye's withdrawl is unfortunate but ultimately Paul just wants to get his hands on the European title and he still has the opportunity to do just that in front of his own fans.

"Rasilla has been in the gym training so making the weight will not be an issue for him and he's promised that Irish eye's won't be smiling next Friday night."

McCloskey's trainer John Breen believes the late change in opponent won't have any impact on his charge.

"Paul's very strong mentally so this won't affect him," he said.

"Remember he went in at a weeks notice himself to stop Colin Lynes to win the British title so this won't bother him at all.

"Obviously it's a no lose situation for Rasilla, he's coming in to the fight the same way Paul did against Lynes so it's a massive chance for him but Paul has trained long and hard for this and he'll be ready for anything on the night.

"I've always believed that Paul's a world class fighter and winning the European title will be just another step on the road to him proving that."

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