Arthur is desperate for a second crack at Cook

ALEX ARTHUR was at loggerheads with his manager today after losing his WBO super-featherweight title to challenger Nicky Cook on Saturday.

The Edinburgh boxer crashed on points to Essex-based fighter Cook over 12 rounds in Manchester.

Now, in the wake of that loss, Arthur is failing to see eye to eye with promoter Frank Warren over which weight he should now box and also the question of whether he should seek a rematch with Cook on December 6 this year.

At a post-fight press conference, Warren called for Arthur to forget boxing at super-featherweight and step up to lightweight, saying: "I really think that Arthur should box from now at lightweight.

"He is a talented ring performer and could do very well in the future in that division."

In contrast, Arthur, who was adamant – wrongly – that he was robbed by the judges' verdict against Cook, claimed: "Frank Warren has said that the winner of Cook and myself could fight either Marco Antonio Barrera or Kevin Mitchell on December 6 but I think that I should get a rematch with Cook on that date instead.

"In fact, I feel that given my defence against Nicky Cook was a first voluntary defence I think in fairness to me I should be re-matched with Cook.

"Indeed, I feel so strongly about this issue that I might have to consider if I wanted to carry on boxing if I didn't get a rematch with Cook – and I also have no intention of moving up to lightweight."

In contrast to earlier claims that he "controlled the fight and should have won," Arthur admitted: "I was nowhere near as effective or sharp as I was when I beat Koba Gogoladze in Cardiff last year for the Interim WBO title but that's because I was ring rusty. With the benefit of hindsight, I should have had an eight-round warm-up bout before defending against Cook."

However, Warren received strong backing for his viewpoint that Arthur should go up to lightweight from former WBC lightweight champion Jim Watt, who said: "It's foolish to write off Arthur because he was outpointed by Nicky Cook and lost his world crown.

"Cook won because the real Alex Arthur with his devastating body punches and tremendous left jab simply didn't turn up in Manchester.

"Although you could argue that Arthur won a couple of rounds, Cook had an edge as well over Arthur in the second half of the bout but there is no way that Arthur ever looked like retaining his world title.

"I gave Cook at least the first five rounds but my advice to Arthur is forget the super-featherweights and go up to lightweight.

"He should have three fights to see how it goes and if it goes fine then go for the world title but I agree with Frank Warren that Arthur should ditch the super-featherweight division.

"Cook deserved to win because he was in charge and dominated the exchanges. Alex has fought much, much better in past fights than he did against Cook."

And even newly-crowned champion Cook backed Warren's call for Capital ace Arthur to abandon the 9st 4lbs division.

He said: "Arthur is in the same situation that I was when trying to win the world featherweight title from Steve Louveano.

"Stepping up to super-featherweight I felt much stronger although I never realised just how strong Arthur was until the fight. As Frank Warren has said, Alex Arthur could be just as successful as I have proved to be at the bigger weight by switching to lightweight."

Meanwhile, Cook's coach – dad Paul Cook – explained how the ring gameplan he and his son had devised was the key to his son's unanimous points verdict win. He revealed: "Our strategy was to have Nicky keep on the outside jabbing and deliberately staying well away from Arthur inside where his left hook to the body could cause my son grief.

"It worked and Nicky is the new world champion!"

Warren, meanwhile, agreed with ex-world champion Watt's view that Cook had "won the first five or six rounds handily to build up an unassailable points lead".

Said Warren: "I don't agree with Arthur's view that he won the bout – he lost the early rounds to Cook, who was impressive overall and rightly deserved to win."

Two of the three English ringside judges – Roy Francis and Dave Parris had Cook ahead by nine rounds to three and eight to three respectively and my scorecard coincided more or less with both these post-fight scorelines rather than the narrow six rounds to five of judge Terry O' Connor.

One can quibble about the different points awarded margins of the three ringside officials but what is undisputed is that the ferociously competitive and effective ring warrior Arthur, who so impressively beat Gogoladze last year was conspicuously missing on Saturday.