By Terence Dooley
Greater Manchester’s Andy Morris could be given a shock chance to fight for the British super-featherweight title. Boxingscene’s sources claim that the 26-year-old former British featherweight champion is set to face off against Leeds’s Gary Skyes, who defeated Anthony Crolla in a thrilling elimination contest last May.
Kevin Mitchell’s move up in weight has left the title free and we understand that Hatton Promotions could stage the fight sometime in March or April, which means that they will continue their run of grabbing title, and Sky TV, opportunities for their boxers.
Sykes fights Dean Mills, 3-2-2 (2), on the undercard of tonight’s Jason Booth-Matthew Marsh British super-bantamweight showdown at the Harvey Hadden Leisure Centre, Nottingham. Gary, who is 25-years-old and has a 13-0 (4) record, should win this one and will go into the Morris fight on a fine run of form.
Morris won the British 126lb title back in 2005 when he defeated John Simpson on points up in Glasgow. Morris successfully defended the title once, against the then-unheralded Rendall Munroe, and looked one to watch in the featherweight ranks. Simpson, however, reversed the loss in 2006 and then spectacularly KO’d the talented ‘Wythenshawe Warrior’ in their 2007 rubbermatch.
Sykes, who, like Morris, is a former ABA champion at lightweight, was due to fight Ricky Burns for the vacant title; however, Burns is challenging for Roman Martinez’s WBO title in Puerto Rico on March the 6th and clearly has bigger fish to fry right now, leaving the way clear for a Morris-Sykes showdown.
The BBBoC planned to call for purse bids early next week to decide who would stage the proposed Sykes-Burns clash, so we could find out a date, venue and promoter for Sykes-Morris, should Hatton Promotions not acquire the rights to stage the contest, within the next week or so. We will keep you posted.
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