ALL SUCCESSFUL fighters must have it. That quality signified by a glint in the eye or the ability to rumble an opponent verbally, or to put a thumb where it shouldn't go and perhaps leave a head in a place it shouldn't be. Let's call it the devil, without the capital D.
Ali, Tyson, even Sugar Ray Leonard, all had the devil, while Frank Bruno and John Conteh didn't have enough of it. 'It' is best summed up as an ability to enjoy hurting an opponent, and in the early years of his career, Alex Arthur of Edinburgh alw
ays had the devil inside.
It showed in the smile as he trapped an opponent on the ropes and went to work with the finest body shots yet produced by a Scottish champion. But lately, Arthur admits he has lost his devil, and significantly, it's been a while since he regularly threw one of those ferocious left hooks to the body that literally broke the ribs of opponents.
"It might seem a strange thing for a Christian to say, but something comes over me when I'm in there and I do enjoy hurting people," said Arthur. "But in my last two fights I didn't have that. It was gone.
"I badly wanted to beat up Koba Gogoladze (for the WBO interim title in 2007) and I did that even though he cut me and I had to bite my gumshield and knock him down three or four times. But since then, it's not been there."
Now the former world super-featherweight champion wants back the devil he lacked against Stephen Foster in December, 2007, and especially against Nicky Cook who removed his WBO featherweight belt on points in Manchester last September.
"No disrespect to Stevie or Nicky but it was embarrassing to me to get taken the distance and then beaten by fighters who were not at my level," said Arthur. "They beat a shadow, a drained version of Alex Arthur. Making the (super-feather] weight had become desperate. That became my focus – passing the weigh-in became my fight. I trained hard and ate little or nothing just to step on the scales, where I left everything before the fight itself.
"But this time I have toughened up mentally and physically, and I am back throwing my body shots again.Now all I have to do is get back into the ring and show that I still have my God-given ability to dismantle people."
Next Friday in Bellahouston Centre, Glasgow, on a Sky televised bill, Arthur will make his comeback against the useful Mohammed Benbiou of France. After ten painful months out with a spinal injury and various infections, Arthur has gone back to basics in a bid to get his career back on track. He has returned to the gym of original trainer Terry McCormack in Edinburgh, and most importantly, is stepping up to lightweight, though the fight has actually been made at light-welterweight – "I am eating properly, which is a big blessing."
Yet at the age of 30, Arthur knows he has to win and win well to get back towards the "elite club" as he calls them. "Lightweight is a terrific division now, but in a way this is the last chance saloon for me, though it's not like I am worried or pent-up or over-anxious. I have a point to prove to myself rather than the public, and I just feel it is a new chapter, like I'm a wee laddie again, and it's all very exciting."
Topping the Bellahouston bill for the Commonwealth super-featherweight championship against Kevin O'Hara of Belfast will be Ricky Burns, a former victim of Arthur's who first really showed his promise as a 22-year-old in a gruelling points loss to the Edinburgh boxer at Meadowbank in 2006.
Burns, of Coatbridge, subsequently won the vacant Commonwealth super-featherweight title against Osumanu Akaba of Ghana in September last year before defending the belt in Glasgow against another Ghanaian, Yakubu Amidu, and then Manchester's Michael Gomez, one-time conqueror of Arthur who had given Amir Khan a fright before succumbing in his previous title fight.
Both defences ended with Burns hammering his opponents to a standstill in the seventh round, evidence of his growing power at the age of 26. But unlike Arthur, Burns has no problems making the limit at super-featherweight.
"I am 9st 7lbs now so I have only 3lbs to lose before the weigh-in" said Burns yesterday. "Making the weight is not a problem for me and I am eating healthier and feel I am punching heavier all the time."
O'Hara might present more of a problem than the scales, as the Northern Irishman, who is older than Burns at 27 but has had eight fewer professional contests, is desperate to win a title.
"It's the biggest fight of my life," said O'Hara, who is friendly with Burns outside the ring. He can expect no favours from the champion, however, and just as happened when he lost to Glasgow's Willie Limond in 2005, the durable O'Hara may go the distance but will see a Scottish hand be lifted as winner at the bell.
On the same night in Aberdeen's Beach Ballroom – and how did that happen, as Scottish boxing isn't exactly crowded with championship contenders? – local hero Lee McAllister will slim down from light-welterweight in a bid to win the Commonwealth lightweight title vacated by Amir Khan against Godfred Sowah of Ghana. If former WBU belt holder McAllister can avoid the big punches of the Ghanaian lightweight champion, he should have too much experience and endurance against a man with a record of 11 wins and three losses, none of whose contests have gone beyond ten rounds.
If McAllister wins, his manager Tommy Gilmour has promised this hugely popular fighter a major contest in front of what would be sell-out crowd at Aberdeen Exhibition Centre. What chance a defence of that Commonwealth belt against the new kid on the Scottish lightweight block? First of all, however, a born-again Alex Arthur has a date with a lost devil.
