One More Round British Scene Edition: Foster Stops Kirakosyan, Commonwealth Games, Khan/Maidana, Klitschko/Chisora, Prizefighter Heavyweights

Dave Oakes of The Boxing Bulletin's British Scene brings you this week's edition of One More Round.

Good things come to those who wait – and Stephen Foster Jnr must surely agree with that. The Salford super-feather claimed the European title last Saturday after stopping Armenian knockout artist Leva Kirakosyan in the third round.

Foster started cautiously before picking up the pace in the second and heavily dropping the champion in the third – a beautifully timed left hook sending Kirakosyan crashing to the canvas. The referee waved the fight over with Kirakosyan on unsteady legs and in no fit state to carry on.

The win will give Foster’s career a much needed boost. He’s suffered through inactivity in the past, hopefully he’ll be able to make a few defences of his European title in the next twelve months, and if everything goes to plan, chase a world title shortly afterwards. Although, I’m sure he’d jump at the chance of an immediate fight with Ricky Burns for the Scotsman’s WBO belt.

His Dad, Steve Snr (‘The Viking’), told Sky after the fight that he’d happily take the Burns fight for "real money". He also, never being one for shying away from giving his opinion, blasted "boxing so called expert pundits" for writing his lad off.

It’s great to see that he’s not lost any of the passion that made him a big fans’ favourite during his own career. I also agree with him to a certain extent, I feel people may have forgotten how good Foster Jnr was as an amateur and the promise he showed early in his career.

The two losses on his record weren’t damaging defeats and one of those came against Alex Arthur when the Edinburgh man was at his peak. The main damage to his career came with the inactivity mentioned earlier, which came after the Arthur defeat. Foster looks like he’s finally beginning to turn his promise into results, and if he keeps on winning, then he should gain more recognition from both writers and fans in the future.

The Commonwealth Games begun this week. An early hitch with the weigh-in scales caused a few arguments but was eventually resolved, with the weigh-in happening a day later than scheduled.

The home nations are represented by some very talented fighters, the most notable being light-flyweight Paddy Barnes (Northern Ireland), flyweight Khalid Yafai (England), lightweight Darren Edwards (Wales), light-welterweight Bradley Saunders (England), welterweight, and brother of domestic champions Paul and Stephen, Callum Smith (England), and middleweight Anthony Ogogo (England).

One boxer not representing England is Amir Khan’s brother, Haroon. Haroon claimed he was frozen out by the selectors and has opted to switch alliances to Pakistan. Khan’s father Shah has made some ludicrous claims that Haroon wasn’t picked due to political reasons and because of jealousy towards Amir’s success. Claims that have been strongly denied by the much respected Robert McCracken, who’s the performance director for British amateur boxing.

Haroon’s a talented young boxer but he hadn’t shown any evidence that he deserved a place ahead of Gamal Yafai. Instead of working hard and trying to force his way into the 2012 Olympic squad, he’s chosen to whine and moan about things that appear to be blatantly untrue. It’s a shame when things like this happen, but not entirely surprising.

Talking of the Khan’s, Amir has flown out to the Philippines for three weeks training alongside Manny Pacquiao in preparation for his December 11th date with Marcos Maidana.

Both boxers are promising fireworks, and it should be an entertaining fight, but Maidana is woefully inept technically. He’s got the power to knockout Khan at any point, though I’ve got a feeling that the Bolton man will be far too quick and skilful for Maidana to deal with and should be able to outbox and counter the Argentinean easily.

In what could be a big night for British boxing, another Briton may be challenging for a world title on December 11th. Dereck Chisora is surprisingly being lined up for a shot at Wlad Klitschko, a shot that no-one could’ve foreseen.

I’ve no idea what Chisora has done to deserve this chance but I can’t criticize him for taking it. It’s every boxers dream to be the heavyweight champion of the world and it’s an opportunity that may only come once in a career.

I hope he’s getting well paid for travelling to Germany to take such a massive leap in class. You can’t rule him out completely, mainly because of Klitschko’s obvious flaws in the chin department, but he’s got a momentous task ahead of him if he’s to pull off a shock.

The Prizefighter returns this Saturday, another sell-out show at the York Hall, Bethnal Green sees eight heavyweights battling it out for the £32,000 winner’s prize.

Matt Skelton is the pre-tournament favourite but faces competition from Michael Sprott, Kevin McBride, Ali Adams, Danny Hughes, Declan Timlin, Shane McPhilbin and Franklin Egobi.

Personally, I believe Skelton is over the hill and would be surprised if he won, although the three round format should suit him. My pick is Sprott, he’s mixed in top European class, is still in decent shape and showed last time out against Audley Harrison that he’s still capable of producing good performances.

The dark horse of the tournament is the unbeaten Declan Timlin, he’s been extremely inactive in his career, fighting just seven times in over six years, but is a good all-action fighter who possesses knockout power.

It should be another entertaining Prizefighter show.

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