Carruth fired up for World title fight in Tallaght

Professional boxing returns to Dublin tonight when six bouts will be staged at the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght

Professional boxing returns to Dublin tonight when six bouts will be staged at the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght. Heading the bill will be the former Olympic welterweight champion Michael Carruth, who fights Scott Dixon from Glasgow for the vacant WAA world title.

Carruth has not set the world alight in his professional career to date, although much of that is due to his unfortunate relationship with the British promoter Frank Warren.

Carruth now proclaims that he is an independent entity and he regards this bout as the first step on the road to international success, even though he has passed his 30th birthday. He accepts that the World Athletic Association, for whose title he will fight, is fairly low on the ladder in world boxing terms. "The fact is that I need a world title to show that I can challenge the best at my weight. If that happens to be Oscar de La Hoya, so be it. I am ready for the best and I fear nobody," he says.

He knows little about tonight's opponent, apart from the fact that he has, like Carruth himself, an undistinguished professional record. Videos of Dixon 's fights have not been made available, but Carruth dismisses this as a factor, although he accepts that in the early part of the fight he will have to be careful and attempt to find out what the strong points of his opponent's strategy will be.

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Of Carruth's 16 professional bouts he has won 14 and lost two. His last fight was in Germany almost a year ago when he lost a controversial world title challenge against Michael Loewe on points after 12 rounds. The fact that he has not boxed seriously for a year may be a factor against him, but he appeared very confident yesterday as he put the finishing touches to his preparations.

There was a slight hitch at the weigh-in in Dublin's Ormond Hotel, when Dixon failed narrowly to make the stipulated weight, but an hour's workout in the gym soon put that right and the bout goes ahead as planned.

Some of the gloss has been taken off the Tallaght bill by the fact that both Pascal Collins and Paul Griffin have been forced to withdraw. Collins, the younger brother of the former world champion, Steve, received a bad cut above the eye in training and Griffin was involved in a road accident.

Dublin boxing supporters will have plenty to cheer, however, when Jim Rock meets Michael Monaghan from Nottingham in the super middleweight division in the major supporting bout of the night. Rock has moved up a weight in order to accommodate Monaghan, who has considerable support among the Dublin boxing public. Neil Sinclair from Belfast, well known to Dublin's amateur boxing fans from his fights in the National Stadium, meets Paul Denton from Birmingham over six rounds in a welterweight contest and Jonathan O'Brien from Dublin will meet Joe Pritchard from Cardiff at super middleweight.

Of particular interest to observers of the up-and-coming Irish squad will be the bout between Cathal O'Grady from Meath, who will take part in the six-round cruiserweight bout against Lee Swaby from Lincoln. The former professional jockey Willie Valentine will take on Sean Grant from Aycliffe in England. The bill is intended to set the stage for more regular professional boxing in Dublin. Businessman Syl McClean intends to put on shows of this nature in Dublin three or four times a year. Tickets for the promotion are available at the Submarine Bar in Crumlin.

Wayne McCullough has split from his coach Thel Torrance six weeks before his scheduled clash with the WBO featherweight titleholder Prince Naseem Hamed. McCullough, training in Atlantic City on October 31st, will now be trained by Kenny Croom.