Boxing: Appleby to warm up for Euro title tilt

Published on Friday 3 July 2009 10:00

FORMER British featherweight champion Paul Appleby will have two warm-up bouts in preparation for a crack at the European title in November.

The South Queensferry boxer, who lost his British title to Irishman Martin Lindsay in Belfast in April, faces Ukranian champion Oleg Yefimovych for the European crown in a bout which has been delayed from September as Appleby's manager, Tommy Gilmour, works to get the fight staged in Glasgow.

Appleby's coach, Steve McGuire, said: "Paul is a brilliant prospect but maybe he began to think that he was invincible until Lindsay showed him otherwise.

"Paul is only 21 and at that age we all tend to think we are fireproof, but he can come again big style by using some of the lessons from the Lindsay defeat against the Ukranian."

Meanwhile, a public warning by the referee proved costly for Gilmerton southpaw featherweight Josh Taylor as he crashed out of the Brandenburg Cup tournament in Germany, losing by two points in the quarter-finals to Martin Ward from London.

South Queensferry lightweight Lewis Benson was beaten 12-0 to a Russian rated at No.5 in the world.

Gilmerton's two-time British lightweight champion, Connor McCallum, will seek to add European gold to his brace of British medals later today at the tournament when he clashes with an Austrian opponent.