Boxing: Young poised for American bow in Iowa

Published on Wednesday 17 June 2009 10:13

GARY YOUNG has signed a six-fight deal with his American manager and is poised to make his USA ring debut in Iowa next month.

He will also get the chance to spar with the legendary Floyd Mayweather.

The former Gilmerton pro welterweight, who left Scotland earlier this year because he was disillusioned about a lack of career progress in this country, will fight an eight rounder in the States next month against a selected opponent.

Young said: "My American manager Jason Schleisinger has signed a six-fight promotional deal on my behalf which will see me fight all over the USA.

"I've been told that my first fight will be in Iowa over eight rounds so I'm very excited about my debut showdown. Equally exciting is the fact that I have been alerted by ex-1980s world champion Cornelius Boza Edwards that I will be required to spar with Floyd Mayweather in Las Vegas in prep for his upcoming fight with Juan Manuel Marquez."

Meanwhile, Gareth Stemp, Holyrood's Scottish Senior amateur bantamweight champion, crashed out of the international Multi-Nations tournament in Odense, Denmark, after losing to Romania's Razvan Andeiana.

However, the Capital fighter did enjoy the prestige of being labelled "Braveheart" in the local media.

He said: "An Odense newspaper ran a story headlined "Gareth Stemp the Braveheart". Unfortunately I couldn't live up to that tag as I was decked once by Andeiana and given two public warnings for rules infringements before losing by 17-4.''

Stemp's Scotland team-mate Sean Finney was outpointed by a 13-2 score by Denmark's Torben Keller.