Boxing: Simmons steps into unknown

EDINBURGH Olympic heavyweight hope Steve Simmons admitted today that his bid to make the quarter-finals of the Multi-Nations tournament in Ankara, Turkey, depended on him beating a mystery opponent.

The Leith Victoria boxer was today taking on Albanian Christian Demaj, a fighter he knows nothing about.

"I have never fought an Albanian opponent before and neither my British team coaches or I have been able to find out much about the guy, but the fact that he is boxing here makes me cautious because dark horse opponents like him can often be the most dangerous type," he said.

Meanwhile, South Queensferry club coach Mark Geraghty and Lochend southpaw lightweight Josh Taylor were today flying to Finland to compete for Scotland in the prestigious Bee-Gee tournament.

Scottish team coach Geraghty said: "Josh Taylor is fired up as he wants to compensate for not being among the medals last month at the Commonwealth Federation games in India and he has looked really good in our sparring sessions with top Scottish lightweights."

• SPARTA will stage their first show of 2010 on Sunday, 25 April at the club's gym off Portobello High Street. One half of the bill will be made up by seven Sparta novice boxers making their debuts. The show starts at 1pm.