Harrison sizes up switch to the Kelvin Hall

Sports Network, Harrison’s promoter, is understood to have pencilled in a date of Friday, 10 September for the 26-year-old’s bid to set an all-time record of six successful world championship contest victories by a Scottish boxer. Harrison’s stunning third round stoppage of William Abelyan last month saw him equal Jim Watt’s mark of five wins.

Harrison has only fought at the Kelvin Hall once before, topping the bill in March 2002 when he stopped Australian Tony Wehbee in three rounds in a Commonwealth title defence. All seven of his contests since then have been at the Braehead Arena as he has achieved his status as one of the world’s leading operators in the nine-stone division.

However, there were some empty seats at the recent Abelyan bill and Sports Network is thought to believe a switch to the more central and easily accessible Kelvin Hall will ensure a sell-out. The possible move to a Friday night, incidentally, comes as a result of Sky Sports moving some of its English Premiership live football coverage to Saturday evenings.

No opponent has been identified for Harrison yet, although the previously mooted and unbeaten Samuel Kedebe of Sweden, ranked No8 by the WBO, is a possibility.

The Marriott Hotel in Seoul is hardly renowned as a hotbed of boxing but, so far as Harrison’s ambition of ultimately unifying the featherweight division is concerned, it plays host to a highly-significant contest tonight.

Injin Chi, the South Korean who claimed the vacant WBC featherweight title with a seventh-round stoppage of Michael Brodie in Manchester three months ago, makes his first defence against Japanese champion Eiichi Sugama.

Frank Maloney, Harrison’s manager, has already stated his desire to set up a unification contest with Chi and will hope there are no slip-ups from the 31-year-old in a fight being screened on Sky Sports at 8pm tonight.

Chi, whose only meaningful defeat in 31 contests since turning professional back in 1991 was an heroic points loss to the brilliant Erik Morales in Los Angeles three years ago, is an odds-on favourite to record his 29th career win over the unheralded Sugama who is fighting outside his homeland for the first time.

It remains to be seen how easily a match with Chi can be made by Harrison’s handlers but there are certainly no shortage of lucrative, high profile potential contests for the Scot who has now firmly established himself as a major player in arguably boxing’s most exciting weight class.

Marco Antonio Barrera, the celebrated Mexican, remains the biggest name in the featherweight division despite not currently holding a version of the title. He proved he still has much to offer with his tenth-round stoppage of Paulie Ayala last month and Frank Warren, Harrison’s promoter, said: "I’d love to make the fight between Scott and Barrera and I think it’s a fight Scott would have a great chance of winning."

Juan Manuel Marquez, another Mexican luminary, is scheduled to defend his WBA and IBF versions of the title on 18 September in Las Vegas against compatriot Orlando Salido, while the dynamic if uncultured Filipino Manny Pacquaio makes up the division’s elite.

"For me, the two names I’m most interested in are Chi and Marquez," says Peter Harrison, Scott’s father and trainer. "They are the guys who hold the other belts which Scott wants."

THE short-sighted decision by the BBC to step back from boxing in the wake of its inflated contract with Audley Harrison expiring is a blow to the sport’s fans. So, savour one of the Beeb’s final offerings this weekend as the corporation scales down its coverage.

Arturo Gatti, the thrill-a-minute Canadian, defends his WBC light-welterweight title against unbeaten and gifted Romanian challenger Leonard Dorin in Atlantic City tonight and BBC 2 show it at 12.15am on Monday morning.