EDINBURGH boxer Alex Arthur's hopes of becoming WBO super-featherweight champion have been rated 50/50 by the men helping him prepare for his May 3 clash with Joan Guzman.
Interim champion Arthur is currently training in Las Vegas ahead of his Meadowbank showdown with title holder Guzman of the Dominican Republic.
And he revealed today how his American-based sparring partners are split over whether he can snatch t
he title away next month.
Said Arthur: "I've now settled in fine with Irish ex-world champion Wayne McCullough and, after some hard sparring sessions with top Americans, they've revealed that they are split 50/50 on whether I will beat Guzman and take his title.
"To be truthful, some have told me, bluntly, that I won't beat him but others have told me that I can and will beat Guzman because they've never been hit with as hard a body shot as my trademark left hook to the body.
"And, even a couple of the pro-Guzman guys admitted that my left hook to the body was the kind of punch that could be decisive in helping me shock Guzman, who probably hasn't been hit by anything like it in his past fights.
"The weather has been really warm and this has helped me in my stamina training and weight regulation strategies, although I'd like to repeat there is no chance of me – after three weeks working out in the Red Rock mountains – having the weight-making problems that left me drained and listless before my fight with Steve Foster back in December when the Scottish winter cramped the style of my normal training regime.
"I won't be making that error again so Guzman better not be banking on meeting a weight and stamina-drained Alex Arthur on May 3."
Unbeaten Capital super-middleweight Kenny Anderson will clash with 6ft 4in Welshman Nathan Chapman on the undercard of the Arthur/Guzman bout.
Said Anderson: "I'm studying tapes of Chapman because fighting a guy that big presents its own problems."
SPARTA club coach Mark Geraghty will have his first taste of coaching a Scottish national amateur squad at Sheffield tomorrow in the British Schoolboys' championship finals where Sparta's recently crowned Scottish 1994 class bantamweight champion, Stuart Blackie will fight in his first major international tournament.
The full article contains 392 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
