By Elliot Foster

Ryan Farrag is moving down in weight as he looks to get back in the title mix.

The former European bantamweight champion, who has been out of the ring since losing to Ryan Burnett for the British title last October, admitted in a recent TV interview that he would need to drop down.

But Farrag (16-3, 4 KOs) said that world titles by the end of this calendar year would not be out of the question if he settled properly in the 115-pound division.

“I’d say I boxed at the top level at bantamweight last year,” the 28-year-old Liverpudlian told John Parry on Bunce’s Boxing Hour last week.

“I boxed [Karim] Guerfi and [the aforementioned Ryan] Burnett and I just felt that the lads had a little bit more strength on me, so I’m going to go down to super-flyweight and hopefully I’ll be the biggest out of the bunch down there and they will be feeling my strength.

“I’ll definitely be looking for titles next year in that division.

Farrag has the likes of newly-crowned WBA champion Kal Yafai, WBC king Roman Gonzalez and WBO ruler Naoya Inoue for company in his new weight division.

But despite the level of opposition he may face in the upper echelons of the weight class, the former English champion –– who had a points victory against Elvis Guillen sandwiched between the two defeats last year –– is not ruling out being part of the top table come the end of 2017.

“I think I could make a great impact [at the weight],” he continued. “I don’t think there’s anyone at that weight in the country that would give me problems.

“Yafai’s just won a world title at that weight and that would be a great fight. Obviously I’ve got a bit of work to do before I’m there yet, but world titles by the end of the year is not far off.”