Kash Farooq has revealed that, should he successfully defend his British bantamweight title on August 17, the much-hyped bout against Commonwealth champion Lee McGregor will definitely take place before the end of this year.

Farooq will make the all-important third defence of his Lonsdale belt this Saturday at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Glasgow against Englishman Duane Winters.

And with the Knightswood bantamweight’s next fight confirmed, the British Boxing Board of Control have waived grace, which means that the winner of Farooq v Winters is now contractually obliged to set up the McGregor fight.

An all-Scottish clash for the two belts would be the biggest domestic fight in decades with both fighters keen to take that next step in their respective careers with 23-year-old Farooq excited but not getting ahead of himself.

Read more: Drumchapel United host successful five-day summer football festival

“The winner of my next fight will be fighting Lee McGregor next no matter what,” Farooq told Post Sport. “It has been a long-time coming and there has been a lot of talk about it but I need to make sure I focus on Duane first.

“That is the only thing on my mind right now. I need to get through that first as he’s not coming up here to lie down and let me win.

“To be honest, it means absolutely nothing to me right now that McGregor would be next. It’s completely irrelevant as I have a fight first.

“Once that’s out of the way, all going well, we can then sit down with McGregor, his manager and his camp and talk it over. Everything needs to be right for us and my manager will need to be happy with everything.”

Edinburgh fighter McGregor, who hasn’t been shy in talking about a potential bout with Farooq, took to social media after the BBBofC’s announcement, Tweeting: “2019 is going to finish with a bang.”