MARK Heffron has had a large carrot dangled in front of him ahead of his return to the ring later this month.

Should the Oldham favourite come through his fight on the Josh Warrington-Kid Galahad undercard in Leeds on June 15 then he is in line for a shot at the European middleweight title.

The EBU originally named Watford’s unbeaten Elliott Matthews as his opponent for their EU title but the former English champion has pulled out.

That means Heffron’s manager Kevin Maree is waiting to hear who is next in line with the former British title challenger’s attentions first on a six-round clash against Daniel Urbanski at the First Direct Arena.

If the 27-year-old picks up professional win number 23 as expected, then all eyes will be on a challenge for a major title in the near future.

“We needed something to get Mark excited again,” said Maree, who saw his charge come up short in a British title bid against Liam Williams in December.

“I got the phone call from the board about the potential of it and they asked if I would be interested and I said ‘yes’ straight away.

“We went through a few different things and it got confirmed.

“It was going to go out to purse bids (where promoters compete to hold the contest) but unfortunately Elliott Matthews pulled out.

“Now we’re just waiting on another opponent to be selected.

“It makes June 15, which should have been just another routine sort of warm-up, a bit more exciting.

“It’s now like the semi-final of the cup because if you make a mess of that one you lose everything.”

The Williams loss was the first of Heffron’s career, the Robert Rimmer-trained fighter then coming back with a points win against Serge Ambomo on home soil at the Oldham Leisure Centre in March.

The meeting with Poland’s Urbanski will represent another tune up for ‘Kid Dynamite’ ahead of bigger tests down the line.

“He’ll have had a couple of comeback fights,” said Maree.

“We wanted the fight on the Josh Warrington card to keep him busy.

“It’s a six-rounder and it should be what you class as a warm-up looking at Mark’s record but you can’t get your traditional journeymen to fight Mark because he knocks too many people out.

“We have to get a good level of journeymen.

“Serge was a perfect comeback opponent because he’s really tough and we’d told Mark beforehand it would do him no favours to go in and blast him out.

“He needed the rounds under his belt and that box was ticked.

“Now we’ll go out and be a bit more adventurous in Leeds and then we’ll be looking towards the European title which would be amazing.”

Contact Heffron on social media for any last-minute tickets for June 15.