Burns unfazed as Irishman fancies an upset

Published on Thursday 18 June 2009 22:33

COMMONWEALTH super-featherweight title challenger Kevin O'Hara vowed to copy his Irish sparring partner Martin Lindsay by stripping a Scot of his belt. The Belfast boxer takes on champion Ricky Burns at the Bellahouston Leisure Centre tonight looking to cause an upset.

O'Hara, 27, replaces Steve Foster who pulled out after a purse row, and he has been helped in his preparations by Lindsay, who scored a sixth-round stoppage against South Queensferry fighter Paul Appleby in Belfast in April to become the new British featherweight champion.

Burns is favourite to retain his belt, as Appleby was in April, but O'Hara said: "I think I will upset the odds, I quietly fancy my chances.

"I have been training with Martin and success breeds success. The guys in my gym didn't fancy Martin against Appleby but I did.

"I put all my savings on him and won 2,500. It was man against boy. It's another Irishman taking another Scot's belt and that's the way I'm looking at it. That's just the way it is."

Burns, 26, was unimpressed with the Irishman's bravado. "He can go in there with all the game plans he wants but there is no way I'm getting beat."

Further down the bill, the former WBO super-featherweight champion Alex Arthur gets back on the comeback trail against Mohamed Benbiou after losing his title to Nicky Cook nine months ago. The Edinburgh fighter has since moved up to lightweight and claims to feel the benefit.

In Aberdeen's Beach Ballroom on the same night, local hero Lee McAllister, 26, will fight for the vacant Commonwealth lightweight title against Ghana's Godfred Sowah.

McAllister's manager, Tommy Gilmour, insists his fighter, who lost his British title clash with John Murray in January, is aware of the importance of this fight.

He said: "Lee is in good shape. He realises that if he wins then this can be the stepping-stone to bigger and better things."