Boxing: Mathews dreaming of home as London calls

Feb 2 2008 by Our Correspondent, Liverpool Daily Post

WHEN Derry Mathews steps through the ropes in London tonight he will be wishing he was back in Liverpool.

The WBU featherweight champion was due to make the third defence of his world title this evening as the star attraction at the newly-opened Liverpool Echo Arena but instead boxes a non-title eight-rounder on the undercard of Amir Khan’s Commonwealth lightweight fight against Australia’s Gairy St Clair at the Excel Arena.

Mathews will now top the bill in his home city on Saturday, April 12, providing there are no slip ups in the capital, that is.

His opponent tonight, the Georgian Nikoloz Berkatsashvili, is not just here to make up the numbers.

Apart from a respectable 14-2 record, one defeat of which came in a WBF title fight against tough Oldham based Mongolian campaigner Choi Tseveenpurev last March, Berkatsashvili knows that beating Mathews would add a major scalp to his slate while handing him a world title shot of his own.

Although it is a non-title contest, defeat for the champion would see him stripped of his title and lose his grip on the European number one spot.

In short, Mathews has little to gain but everything to lose and that is why this fight represents much more than a means to keep him ticking over ahead of his highly anticipated return to Liverpool in spring.

Mathews is undoubtedly the favourite to win tonight, however.

Two successful defences against British featherweight champion John Simpson and the previously undefeated Matthew Marsh since he seized the WBU crown from Stephen Foster Jnr have seen his stock rise over the past 12 months.

In addition to being named the British Boxing Writers 2007 Young Boxer of the Year, the 24-year-old has shot up the world rankings.

Listed as number 10 by the IBF and standing at four with the WBO, Mathews is now gaining the recognition that could see major world title fights coming his way in the not too distant future.

That would be good news for Liverpool that now has a city centre venue capable of staging large scale events.

But first, Mathews has a job to do down south.

COVERAGE of the Big Fight Live featuring Michael Jennings v Ross Minter for the WBU welterweight title begins on ITV 4 at 8.40pm and switches to ITV 1 at 10.40pm for Amir Khan v Gairy St Clair.