Boxing: Capital boxer Alex Arthur sends out a message with brutal display

CAPITAL boxer Alex Arthur kept opponent Mohamed Benbiou waiting for five minutes before entering the ring – four times as long as the 92 seconds it then took him to brutally destroy the Frenchman.

Former WBO champion Arthur was making his lightweight debut after struggles to make the weight at super-featherweight and showed that he was back to his old hard-punching self.

True, Arthur enjoyed large reach and height advantages and it is impossible to say what Benbiou might have been capable of as he spent the brief duration of the bout at Bellahouston Leisure Centre in Glasgow in a defensive shell provoked by Arthur's trademark left hooks to the body.

Those smashing blows dropped the Frenchman for an eight count the very first time they landed in the opening minute of the fight.

Despite, or perhaps because of it's brevity, Arthur's performance was an impressively brutal response to manager Frank Warren's demand for a convincing statement about his credentials at lightweight.

Arthur said: "I would have liked it to have gone on longer than it did –another few rounds would have been okay with me.

"But I saw Benbiou's legs buckle the first time I whacked him with my left hook. His legs buckled twice again before referee Paul Graham jumped in after the third time that I dropped him to the deck .

"Frank Warren asked for proof that I could hack it at lightweight so I'll be pointing out that Benbiou took top Danish lightweight Martin Christjansen the full distance, so no talk please, that I beat a mug tonight.

"Now I want to fight regularly – not just my next warm-up fight in July – but once every couple of months against world-rated lightweights and I'm confident that I can be as every bit as devastating as I was tonight

"Then I'd like to fight for the WBA or WBO lightweight crown at Braehead Arena in Glasgow, which is my favourite venue for atmosphere.

"If, as I intend, I knock over my opponents inside the distance, even the Edinburgh fans will come back out and support me in the city once they see I am now back to my big punching days.''

Arthur received the backing of the man whose record of being the only Scottish boxer to have won two world titles at different weights he is hoping to match – Paul Weir.

Weir was at ringside to cheer Arthur on and said afterwards: "People forget that I sparred with Alex early in his career so I know his abilities well and, although many will say that he fought a poor opponent tonight in Benbiou, I disagree.

"If he hadn't blown him away spectacularly, those same critics would have condemned him for struggling to victory.

"Alex Arthur is perfectly capable of winning a world lightweight title and so equalling my record of being a world champion at two different weights. With punching power like he has, nothing is impossible."

Arthur's cornerman and coach Terry McCormack added: "I told everyone that Alex Arthur, the old destructive-punching Alex Arthur in his super-featherweight prime, would be back in business and he proved it tonight. Benbiou couldn't live with the vicious left hooks to the body and head that we've been practising in the Lochend gym, although even I was amazed by how quickly Arthur destroyed the guy."

Even the defeated Benbiou complimented his conqueror, saying: "Arthur was the best boxer that I've ever faced and, without question, the hardest puncher that I've ever encountered in the ring."

At the top of the Bellahouston bill, Coatbridge's defending Commonwealth super-featherweight champion Ricky Burns won a unanimous points decision over 12 hard rounds against Belfast challenger Kevin O' Hara.

McMILLAN MAKES IT A LOCHEND DOUBLE

ALEX ARTHUR'S Lochend gym stablemate Gary McMillan outpointed Mansfield-based Latvian Alex Spitko by 60-55 over six rounds.

In the second round southpaw welterweight McMillan channelled his anger at being cautioned for illegal use of he head by dropping Spitko to the canvas with a sweet short left to the jaw. The fired-up Capital fighter followed up in the next round by severely jolting Spitko with a thudding right hook to the head.

That was the pattern of action for the remaining next three rounds with the increasingly desperate Latvian clinching repeatedly as McMillan won every round on the referee's scorecard.

McMillan's coach Terry McCormack said afterwards: "That was a great performance when you consider that, just two weeks ago, Spitko decked and out-pointed Coatbridge's Chris Black."