Andre Lambe will honour the memory of his close friend Marco Warren when he takes to the ring during the upcoming Epic Entertainment Fight Night Champion at The Shed in Dockyard.

The southpaw is set to square off with Filipino Ronniel Tabayag in an eight-round welterweight contest, which he has dedicated to PHC captain Warren, who died on Sunday at the age of 29.

“It’s upsetting what’s going on now and I just feel like I have to dedicate this one to Marco for all the support he has given me,” Lambe told The Royal Gazette.

“Marco was a good friend of mine and also an inspiration. We kept in touch all the time, especially ahead of this fight.

“He was very dedicated to what he does and a lot of times when we talked we pretty much had the same mindset when it came to sports. Even though he was playing football and I was boxing, we had the same mindset when it comes to executing what we needed to do.”

Lambe has revealed some of the other plans he has in store to honour the memory and legacy of Warren, who won the Bermuda Football Association’s Most Valuable Player award on three occasions.

“I am working on getting a jersey with his name and everything on it,” he added. “Hopefully, I can get a video played at the event and I also told anybody that’s either fans of Marco, PHC players or supporters to wear a PHC jersey or black and white to represent him.”

Lambe, who boasts an unblemished 7-0 professional record, initially planned to have Warren be a part of his entourage for the May 27 fight card.

“I had gone to Marco’s awards ceremony and after the ceremony it was the ‘Tank’ Davis fight,” he said. “I was sitting there and seeing Davis in his locker room with all his good mates there.

“Marco always came to my fights and I was thinking why not have him come in the locker room. He always comes to my fights and I know he would love to be back there. That was the first person I thought of and that’s what I was going to do this next fight. I wanted to have him come back in the locker room and let him walk out with me this fight.“

Lambe first met Warren while playing youth football at PHC before they became close friends.

“I played for PHC and Marco was playing for the under-16s when I was playing for them,” he added. “But I wasn’t that good, so I was always on the bench.

“I don’t know if he remembered me playing for the team at the time, but we ended up becoming friends later on in life.

“If I would have gone on to under-21s then we probably would have been playing on the same team, but I wasn’t too good, so I ended up leaving football as I didn’t think I was going to get as much playing time. I also tried cricket before boxing but that didn’t work out, either.”

Lambe is now determined to live up to his friend’s expectations during his next foray in the ring.

“I just want to make sure I do everything right; make my weight and put on a good performance because that’s what Marco would have wanted any way,” he said.

“He always came to see me put on a performance and that’s what I want to do. Marco’s death has inspired me even more.

“My preparations are pretty much finished and all I am doing now is cutting the weight.

“I started camp a while ago and have got all my sparring in and done all the work I needed to do, so now I am just cruising to the fight.”

Lambe secured a unanimous decision over Mexican Crisanto Lucio to clinch the vacant American Boxing Organisation welterweight title in his previous outing in January and goes into the fight holding two belts after winning the American Boxing Federation welterweight belt last October.

This month’s fight card will be headlined by the rematch between Bermuda’s Nikki Bascome and Filipino Alvin Lagumbay, who will square off in an eight-round welterweight contest.

Bascome was forced to go the distance before securing a unanimous points decision over southpaw Lagumbay in a super-lightweight contest in 2019.

The orthodox Bascome’s professional record stands at 11 wins and one loss while Lagumbay has 13 wins, six losses and a draw.

The upcoming fight will be Bascome’s first foray back into the ring since securing a unanimous points decision over Canadian Cody Kelly in October last year.

For more details on the upcoming event visit epicbda.com