Saturday Interview: Watt believes Arthur still has to prove he is world class

Published on Saturday 30 August 2008 00:09

JIM Watt has seen most things in boxing, on both sides of the ropes. As he takes his ringside seat at the MEN Arena in Manchester next Saturday night, however, he will bear witness to the kind of fresh curiosity only his beloved sport could deliver.

In one corner will be Alex Arthur, a world champion who, through no fault of his own, has yet to take part in a genuine world title fight. Opposing him will be Nicky Cook, a challenger who has already fought for a world title.

If it is a bizarre state of affairs, it is nonetheless a tantalising contest which shares top billing with Amir Khan's latest outing as the 2004 Olympic silver medallist makes the switch from terrestrial to satellite television on a show which has been given pay-per-view status by Sky.

For Watt, who celebrated his 60th birthday this summer, it is the ideal start to yet another season behind the microphone for Sky, where Scotland's former WBC lightweight champion delivers arguably the most astute analysis of any sport pundit currently operating on British television.

As enthused as he is by the potential of the Arthur-Cook clash for the WBO super-featherweight title, however, Watt believes it is a fight where the champion has as much to prove as the challenger.

Arthur became Scotland's 11th holder of a legitimate world title in May this year without throwing a punch. The Edinburgh man had been the WBO's interim champion since July 2007 when he defeated Koba Gogoladze of Georgia in Cardiff.

Interim status was proffered by the WBO as the genuine holder of their super-featherweight crown, the unbeaten and highly-regarded Dominican Republic boxer Joan Guzman, was unable to defend it against number one contender Arthur because of injury.

Matters should have been settled in the ring at Meadowbank in May but boxing politics intervened. For reasons as yet not properly explained, Guzman failed to make the journey across the Atlantic and has since stepped up to lightweight in pursuit of more lucrative fights.

It meant Arthur, marked out as world champion material ever since he turned professional in 2000, had fulfilled his greatest ambition. But not in the manner Watt is sure the 30-year-old would have envisaged.

Traditionally, fighters like to win a world title in the ring but Alex hasn't done that," said Watt. "He was upgraded from interim champion to champion without fighting. He won't really feel like a world champion until he wins a world title fight.

I think he will feel the need to make a statement in this fight next Saturday night. Winning a world title can improve a fighter and Alex should be on a high psychologically now that he has become champion, no matter the circumstances of it.

He has been in a very tough division since he turned professional. Super- featherweight has been one of the hottest divisions in the world for some time and it has taken longer than he would have hoped to finally become a proper world champion.

"I think if it had gone on much longer, he would have ended up in a rut and it might never have happened for him. Now, he has the chance to establish himself as a world champion and hopefully have a series of big money fights against big name opponents."

>PARAGRAPH<Watt believes Arthur should have the beating of Cook, the 28-year-old former European featherweight champion from Dagenham who suffered the only defeat of his 29-fight career last July when he was stopped in the 11th round by classy American Steve Luevano in a challenge for the WBO's nine stone title.

There is a proviso in Watt's prediction, however. Arthur's last fight, a defence of that interim title against Stephen Foster Jr at Meadowbank last December, saw him deliver an unconvincing performance, surviving an 11th round knockdown to earn a unanimous points win.

I think the problem for Alex against Foster was that it wasn't a big enough fight for him, especially after all the talk about Guzman who is a genuinely world class boxer," reasoned Watt.

With no disrespect to Foster, you wouldn't say he is genuine world class and maybe Alex approached the fight with that in his mind. Whatever the reason, it wasn't a great performance.

He will need to be better against Cook next week. It is a good match. Cook has a great record. He came up short against Luevano, who is a real cutie. Cook didn't really know what to do with him, but there was no disgrace in that defeat. He will fancy his chances against Arthur, you can be sure of that.

Looking at the pedigrees of both fighters, you would have to say Alex is the favourite if he boxes at his best, but it could be a tough fight for him."

If Arthur emerges from it with his title and reputation intact, several intriguing possibilities lie ahead. Among them is a fight against Khan, the Commonwealth lightweight champion, who takes on Colombian knockout specialist Breidis Prescott next Saturday for the relatively meaningless WBO Intercontinental belt.

Arthur has long spoken about moving up in weight to win further world titles and a step into the 9st 9lbs division to face Khan would be both logical and lucrative at this stage of his career. "Khan is going to be the gravy train," said Watt. "I think a fight between Khan and Arthur could definitely happen. It would be a relatively easy one to make as they are both promoted by Frank Warren at the moment.

The contest Warren was most keen to pitch Arthur into, of course, was an all-Scottish affair with Scott Harrison. It would have been the country's most significant fight since Watt's epic battle with Ken Buchanan 35 years ago but it will almost certainly never happen now.

The cataclysmic demise of former WBO featherweight champion Harrison, whose licence remains suspended by the British Boxing Board of Control as his myriad legal difficulties continue, saddens Watt.

It's a pity what has happened to Scott," he says of his fellow Glaswegian. "A fight between Alex and Scott would have been fantastic, not just for Scottish boxing, but I doubt we'll ever see Scott in a ring again."

Harrison's problems echo those encountered by many of Scotland's finest boxers, stretching back to the brilliant but tragic figure of world flyweight champion Benny Lynch some 70 years ago. Watt is the man who bucked that sorry trend, carving out a life and career outside the ring every bit as successful as the one he enjoyed while boxing his way to world title glory and into the hearts of the Scottish public.

On that June evening in 1980 when Watt overcame American Olympic hero Howard Davis at Ibrox in the third of his four successful defences of the WBC title, the peerless sportswriter Hugh McIlvanney observed that "he emerged beyond all question as one of the few genuine heroes of Scotland's sporting mythology".

A crowd of some 30,000 cheered Watt until they were hoarse that night and it is doubtful any Scottish boxer will ever again enjoy such acclaim from his own people. Attendances at Arthur's fights in Edinburgh have been disappointing since he sustained the only defeat of his career to date against Michael Gomez at a sold-out Meadowbank almost five years ago.

Watt would like to see the crowds roll up for Arthur in his homeland again but believes he must seize the chance to sell himself to a wider audience next Saturday. "I'd prefer it if he was fighting in Scotland but hopefully that will happen in the future," said Watt. "We don't get too many world champions and you would like to think the public here will get the chance to turn out and support him.

Certainly Watt sees a bright future for boxing which he judges to be in vigorous shape, and he's keen to remain a part of it. "I'm very happy with the way the sport is right now," he says. "It's thriving on both sides of the Atlantic and we have seen some tremendous fights, both at domestic and world title level, over the past few years. I'm still enjoying it, very much so. I've got no thoughts of hanging up the microphone just yet."