King Davidson starts a big year by once again trying to win back his WBO International light middleweight strap against the vastly experienced Attila Kovacs.

Davidson will be looking to go for a world title this year but will have to see off a potential banana skin first on April 5 in Manchester as he looks to regain the belt he lost.

Having won it in June last year, a series of cancellations saw him robbed of the chance to make a defence and he was eventually stripped of the title. His Hungarian opponent has won 32 of 36 contests, with four losses.

Kovacs is his country’s light middleweight champion, has previously held the IBO title in the same weight class, and has failed in challenges for the WBA Inter-Continental middleweight and WBF light middleweight belts.

The event at Wythenshawe Forum – on the same day Saints are in Manchester to face City at The Etihad – will see the Nigerian-born fighter’s first outing since winning against Stephen Okine in his homeland in December. The 29-year-old first claimed the WBO title in 2012 when he forced a brutal second-round stoppage, sending Joseph Lamptey sprawling at Oceana Nightclub in Southampton.