BOXING/European Super Bantamweight title: You might think Bernard Dunne would feel a little out of place being sandwiched in The Point schedule between gigs by Scissor Sisters and Pink. But as his manager Brian Peters pointed out last week, boxing is "show business with blood".

And so in Saturday night's European Super Bantamweight title fight against England's Esham Pickering, Dunne is stepping up in class and into a harsher, more discerning light as tomorrow's headline act. In Pickering, however, the Neilstown fighter faces an opponent who could, under the right circumstances, rain on the Dublin party.

The 30-year-old, who comes out of the Brendan Ingle stable, rose to the top of his division in 2004 when he claimed the European title with an impressive win over Italy's Vincenzo Gigliotti. Pickering then went on to enjoy an almost two-year reign as Europe's premier super bantamweight.

That dominance perished just over a year ago and since then the fighter has been inactive, which could be a factor that may go against him tomorrow night.

Typically, too, the end of that Pickering dominance was controversial, when he was out pointed by fellow English man Michael Hunter, despite putting his compatriot on the canvas twice early in the fight. In the end it came down to a majority decision. Two of the three judges voted for Hunter, while the third could not split them and called the bout a draw. "I still feel I won that fight and it's held up my career. I wanted a rematch but Hunter's gone in another direction. Now I've a chance to get back to where I want to be by beating Bernard," said Pickering.

For both fighters, the stakes are high and Dunne, with his immaculate 21 consecutive wins, knows that the demands Pickering will place on his talents are away and above of those in any of his previous fights. Pickering wants a lucrative rematch with Hunter, while Dunne wants entry into the world title contenders club following criticism that his road so far has been populated by too many roll-over candidates. To date the talented Irish fighter's toughest opponent was last year's meeting with the Russia's Yuri Voronin, which almost ended in a catastrophic last-round knockout.

"No offence to Bernard, because I think he's a good fighter and alongside myself and Hunter we're the best three in Europe," said Pickering, "but I'm so hungry to get my European title back and I won't be leaving Dublin without it. I just think I'll have too much of everything for Bernard on the night."

Pickering's confidence is justified and the advice he will get from Naseem Hamed's former mentor Ingle will be canny and incisive. Pickering has shown he can go into the opponent's hometown and win as he did in hostile Madrid, when he knocked out Miguel Mallon.

He's strong, experienced and a class operator at this level, just a year ago he narrowly lost to a fighter ranked in the top 10.