WITH just 22 days to go before the first defence of his WBO super-featherweight crown, Edinburgh's Alex Arthur today admitted he is still seven pounds over the weight limit.
Arthur faces Nicky Cook at the MEN Arena in Manchester but says he is bang on schedule to be in the best shape of his life.
However, Arthur has suffered before when shedding weight, particularly against Steve Foster at Meadowbank in December when
he admitted he felt weakened after battling to make the correct weight.
"I've never trained harder than I have for this bout with Cook," said Arthur. "I may be 7lbs over my normal fighting weight right now but I will get rid of that excess poundage comfortably so that I won't have the weight issues that undermined my performance against Foster.
"I've also been having tremendous sparring sessions with my former British and European title challenger, Ricky Burns, and local Gilmerton featherweight, Jason Hastie, at Meadowbank and I'll have ex-world champion Wayne McCullough in my corner so I'm confident that I'll see off Nicky Cook's challenge."
Cook has also warned Arthur not to take his challenge lightly following his defeat to American Steve Luevano in the WBO world featherweight title fight in London in July last year.
Cook, from Dagenham in Essex, is a former British, Commonwealth and European featherweight champion, having turned pro in 1998 and was unbeaten in 27 pro fights before losing to Loevano.
He was floored in the second and third rounds and twice in the ninth before being finally knocked out with a fierce body shot in the 11th.
Cook said that defeat was partly due to him struggling to make the weight and added: "Don't judge me on my loss to Steve Luevano.
"I toiled to make the featherweight limit and was weight weakened by having to boil down to 9st but, against Arthur at 9st 4lbs, I'm going to have the strength that I lacked then, which makes me confident that I can rip Arthur's WBO crown from him.
"Besides, I've had first-class sparring in London with former IBO light-welterweight champion Colin Lynes, so I'm really up for beating Arthur, even though I respect him as a man and champion.''
But Arthur remains confident, saying: "I've never lost a fight in Manchester as a pro and I'm not going to lose this one, I won't lack ringside support either as my Dad has already sold around 500 tickets for the fight.
"This clash with Cook could take on the nature of the kind of thrilling ring war you might get from two Mexican world champions, because I've never trained harder.
"My aim remains to win world titles at lightweight and light- welterweight and become Scotland's first-ever triple world champion so I don't aim to slip up against Cook."
The full article contains 482 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
