McCracken will be in Simpson’s corner for the first time on Saturday as the popular super middleweight from Barnsley attempts to even the score with Williamson at Leeds’ First Direct Arena, live on DAZN.

On December 20, Williamson (22-4-1, 16 KOs) dropped Simpson (18-1, 13 KOs) four times in the tenth round, forcing a stoppage and relieving him of his European, British and Commonwealth super middleweight titles.

Simpson immediately triggered a contracted rematch clause but, realizing that something needed to change, he made the difficult decision to leave his long-term trainer Mark Hurley and link up with the highly respected McCracken.

McCracken isn’t the type to get involved in pre-fight hype and it is his job to look beyond the bad blood that has built up between the two over the past eight months.

“He's got ability. He’s got good technical ability,” McCracken said when asked about Simpson’s attributes.

“He's just got to do things at the right time. He can be more composed. He can move his feet in and out a little bit more.

“He can be better on the inside. He cannot sit in front of people when he's fighting on the inside. I watched the fight back a few times and, listen, Troy Williamson is a really good fighter. There's no two ways about it.”

Lots of fighters prefer to feel their way back into action after changing trainers but Simpson was adamant about stepping directly back into what is a make-or-break fight.

If he can put things right and beat Williamson on Saturday night, that disappointing December night will be written off as a bump in the road. A second successive defeat would be very difficult to come back from and McCracken believes that Simpson has what it takes to even the score. However, McCracken worked with Williamson during his time in the Team GB set-up and acknowledges that things will be far from straightforward.

“Me and Callum spoke. Callum 100% wants to fight Troy. He didn't want to come back with an easy opponent and then fight Troy. I'm sure Troy wants to fight Callum as well,” he said.

“I've known Troy for a long time. Excellent fighter, world-class potential. Callum Simpson, I feel, has world-class potential as well. They're both going to go at it and it's who fulfills that on Saturday night and moves forward. I think both fighters are excellent.”