By Terence Dooley
The fight between Inverness’s Gary Cornish (24-1, 12 KOs) and Norwich-based Sam Sexton (23-3, 9 stoppages) for the vacant British heavyweight title has been rescheduled for October 6 and will take place at Edinburgh’s Meadowbank Arena, according to The Inverness Courier and the Eastern Daily Press. Sam Kynoch of MTK Scotland is promoting the bout after obtaining the rights to stage it from Paul Graham, who won the original purse bid yet had to spike the fight due to a back injury-induced setback for Sexton.
Cornish hopes to become the first Scottish boxer to win the title and hopes that a win will erase the bad memories of a recent car accident; he walked away from that without any major injuries yet that incident, coupled with the Sexton withdrawal, has cast a shadow over his preparations for the title bout.
“Gary’s had an up and down time of it, with the Sexton fight getting cancelled and having his car accident, but I’ve said to him not to lose sight of the fact he’s still 36 minutes or less away from winning the Lonsdale belt,” said Kynoch when speaking to The Inverness Courier. “I’m sure it’ll give him a real spring in his step when he gets back into the gym.”
Sexton has tried to win the title on two previous occasions, but lost to Dereck Chisora (TKO 9 in September 2010) and David Price, a fourth-round KO in May 2015. The 33-year-old former Commonwealth and BBBoC Southern Area title will hope to make it third time lucky away from home.
Cornish lost out to Anthony Joshua when vying for the vacant Commonwealth belt in September 2015. The 30-year-old contender was hammered to defeat in a single round and has since won three on the bounce to ease back into the British title reckoning. With home advantage secured, he will hope to overcome Sexton’s greater experience to land his first major professional title.
Please send news and views to @Terryboxing.
