CONTENDER Gym trainer Mark Kent says Dan Blackwell’s reputation as one of the country’s toughest journeymen has opponents running scared after his International Masters middleweight title fight fell through.

Blackwell was set to take on Brighton’s Nicky Jenman for the vacant belt at the K2 Leisure Centre in Crawley on February 16 after stepping in as a late replacement.

But that bout has now been called off, with Jenman fighting Tomasz Mazurkiewicz.

Kent reckons that Trowbridge’s Blackwell, the younger brother of two-time British title challenger Nick, would have easily claimed his first belt against Jenman and that the teenager is not in the business of giving opponents an easy ride.

“It’s politics and it’s part of the way that boxing is at the moment – the guy didn’t want to fight Dan because he would have beat him,” said Kent.

“The problem with International Masters fights is they’re not recognised by the board (British Boxing Board of Control).

“It’s hard to get things set stone, so people can just make up some excuse if they don’t want to fight someone.

“Dan’s had 19 fights and he’s only won three of them but he’s so tough that you’d need an anti-tank gun in there to stop him.

“Ever since he fought Callum Smith on television (in November last year) people have seen how tough he is and he’s known as the toughest journeyman in the country.

“He’s just 19-years-old so it’s frightening how dangerous he could be when he’s 25 or 26 and he gets his man strength.

“People want to wrap their fighters in cotton wool and they want to fight ‘in and out’ boxers, rather than someone who’s going to stand there and trade.

“We actually think that Dan’s style might be suited a lot more to the way they fight in Germany and the plan is to look to get him out there a bit.”

Blackwell has wasted no time in adding a replacement fight to his schedule and is due to travel to Cleethorpes on February 15 for a four-round contest against Sean Whittles.

The Contender Gym man will also go looking for revenge against Andrejs Loginovs at the March 2 show at the Trowbridge Civic Hall, after he was outpointed by the Latvian last March.

Loginovs was stopped in the fourth round by Nick Blackwell in April 2011.