Onward Christian soldier: Jason Booth was saved by God and boxing

When Jason Booth and Steve Molitor climb into the ring for their world title fight in Sunderland's Rainton Meadows Arena next Saturday night, both men may well have their brothers preying heavily on their minds.

Eight years ago Molitor, from Ontario in Canada, took away the Commonwealth bantamweight championship belonging to Jason's younger brother Nicky, who was never quite the same fighter or person afterwards and retired from professional boxing a year later to descend into a nightmare of drug addiction that eventually saw him sentenced to two years in jail.

Nicky Booth will be ringside in Sunderland, despite reports that the former world title challenger is again suffering severe drug-related problems: "It doesn't matter," said Jason, "he's still my brother and I love him to bits, whatever he's doing."

Jeremy Molitor, Steve's big brother, whose success inspired him to take up boxing as a kid, will definitely not be in the Rainton Meadows Arena. The man who won gold alongside Alex Arthur at the Commonwealth Games in 1998 is currently serving life imprisonment in Canada for murdering his girlfriend while under the influence of drugs in 2004.

The extraordinary thing is that Jason Booth, the British and Commonwealth super bantamweight champion, is still around to challenge Molitor for the IBF world championship in the division which Americans prefer to call junior featherweight.

For just a little over two years ago, the Nottingham man, by his own admission, was drinking himself to death.

Booth said: "I was really bad on the drink. I couldn't get up in the morning without drinking alcohol and it nearly cost me my life. I had a lot of bad things going on, like depression. I had demons."

In 2008, however, Booth turned to God and began boxing again, and it is typical of the now mature 32-year-old that he can laugh about what the return to fighting brought him.

"I was living in a house with bare floorboards," said Booth, "so with the money from my first fight back I bought myself a new carpet.

"Everything in the house and the garden was crap, so every fight I made sure I bought something. I bought a sofa, a PlayStation and now it's looking very nice and my wife has a car."

He still lives in one of the less salubrious areas of Nottingham - "we decided to do something about the garden, and borrowed my dad's lawnmower and strimmer, then we went out for a short while and when we came back they had been nicked," he says. "But thanks to this fight, now I can take my kids to Disneyland, which is where we're going at Christmas."

Booth is yet another example of the redemptive power of sport, and of prayer.He acknowledges that he is "very fortunate" to have a crack at a world title - though he deserves it on his recent record as a British champ - and adds proudly: "I am a Christian and I feel God has been looking after me."

Molitor is making the first defence of his second reign as champion. Ten years a pro and with a record of only one loss in 33 fights, 12 of which he won on stoppages, Molitor first won the world title in 2006, regaining it in March this year after defeat by the excellent Celestino Caballero, who later relinquished the IBF belt. Molitor won it back by beating the tough South African Takalani Ndlovu on a wide points margin, and there's no doubt the Canadian will be a highly formidable opponent who knows all about Booth's story.

He said: "I've done my homework and learned about his trouble. I am happy to hear he has turned his life around, but a lot of fighters have skeletons in their closets and many have had problems and turned things round. Like myself - everybody knows the situation with my brother but I, too, had a lot of problems outside the ring around the time I lost to Caballero."

Booth and Molitor talk about respect for each other a lot. You sense they know the hell they have both been through, and that the way out of it for each has been boxing, while their brothers have succumbed away from the ring.

The two super-bantamweights should perhaps think on this - they're not heavies, and they're not their brothers.

•Jason Booth v Steve Molitor is exclusively live and in high definition on Sky Sports HD1 on Saturday, 11 September. To upgrade to HD call: 08442 410 564