Joe Ward weighs in ahead of his fight in Madison Square Garden

Joe Ward has weighed in ahead of his seventh professional fight, which takes place in New York's famous Madison Square Garden tomorrow (Saturday) night.

The local 28-year-old is taking on Britton Norwood, from Jackson, Mississippi, in a light heavyweight bout scheduled for six rounds.

At today's weigh-in, the Moate man weighed in at 175.2lbs, while his opponent was a little over a pound heavier, at 176.4lbs.

The fight is on the undercard of a night of boxing headed by Ukraine's renowned Vasiliy 'Loma' Lomachenko, who is facing former world champion Richard Commey.

Saturday's bout will be Ward's fourth contest this year, with the previous three having all been unanimous points victories over six rounds.

He is hopeful that another strong performance on the big stage in the Big Apple will help him climb the ladder towards his ultimate goal of becoming a world champion.

"A lot of people dream of getting the opportunity to fight in Madison Square Garden - we all know the history of it on the boxing side of things - and for me it's now going to be my third time fighting there," Ward told the Westmeath Independent recently.

"I'm really looking forward to it, and I'm fully focused on putting on a great show."

His opponent, Britton Norwood, has a respectable professional record of ten wins, three defeats and one draw (7 KO’s). In an Instagram post last week, Norwood shared a picture of himself in the gym and said he was "ready for war".

The Ward-Norwood fight is being shown in the US, along with all of the other undercard bouts, on the ESPN+ channel.

The boxing starts at 5.30pm US time (10.30pm Irish time), and Joe's fight is expected to be one of the first bouts to get underway.

The fight will be over before Sky Sports' coverage of the Lomachenko bout in the UK and Ireland begins at 2am on Sunday.

When contacted by the Westmeath Independent today, a Sky Sports spokesperson said there may be some highlights of Ward's fight included in the Sky broadcast, but he couldn't confirm that for sure.