James Hare puts his WBF welterweight crown on the line for the third time tonight.

Hare aims to round off a hectic year with victory over Mexico's Cosme Rivera at Huddersfield Sports Centre.

But the Lord of the Manor has been warned to expect a long evening against an opponent who has never been stopped.

Rivera, 27, has won 25 of his 34 fights and has been in with some quality fighters.

Hare's co-manager Chris Aston is predicting another tough test for the champion.

He said: "I think James knows he could be in for a long fight. Rivera is a little bit more of a boxer than your typical Mexican and he's durable.

"He's 5ft 11in so there is quite a height advantage but that will work in James' favour. His style suits taller opponents because he can get inside and find them out.

"But it's not an easy fight. The deal after winning the title was a couple of tick-over defences and we've certainly not had that so far."

Hare was put down for the first time in his career last time out by Hungarian Jozsef Matolcsi, although the video suggested it was more of a shove.

He will want to put on a good show before taking a breather ahead of the potential mega-bucks outings next year.

Aston added: "We'll look to outbox Rivera for the first half dozen rounds and get well up on points. Then maybe we'll pick it up a bit and have a good go around the ninth or tenth round to take him out."

Huddersfield's Commonwealth flyweight champion Dale Robinson boxes an eight-rounder on the undercard which also features Danny Parkinson.

The Bradford light-middle, backed by a noisy following, aims to make it nine wins from ten against an opponent he has beaten before.

Parkinson out-pointed Andrew Nicholas in a six-rounder in February 2001.

While Parkinson has won three times since returning to the ring during the summer, Nicholas has been inactive since losing on disqualification for the Northern Area welterweight belt to Oscar Hall two years ago.