By Shaun Brown
Former IBF Bantamweight champion, Paul Butler, 16-0 (8) expects his next contest to be for another world title at his more natural weight of super-flyweight.
The 25 year old was in Croatia when ‘Scene caught up with him and the Merseysider said it wasn’t difficult to vacate the title he won against Stuart Hall 16-3 (7) early last month.
“I thought it would be but I think it’s because I had it in my head all along that I’d vacate and it hasn’t just been sprung upon me that I had to,” he explained.
And Butler said it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that he has decided to give up a world title without making a defence of it.
“The night Stuey Hall won the title against [Vusi] Malinga, I got asked if I fancied the job and I said ‘Yeah but I don’t really fancy staying at bantamweight’ and my team asked ‘What would think about winning the title and dropping back down?’”
“There’s interviews out there where I said it’d be an option to drop back down I just think being a two-weight world champion in 17 fights seems pretty good to me. I’m not a bantamweight and I won’t be for a couple of years that’s why I’m dropping back down to my natural weight.”
Butler hopes to be back out in October at the Echo Arena, Liverpool in front of his home fans and hopes his promoter, Frank Warren, can deliver one of the world champions at 115lbs to his backyard.
“I said I wouldn’t vacate unless I was more or less guaranteed a world title shot because I don’t want to go from being a world champion to into an eliminator or a final eliminator. I want to be straight back in for a world title. I’ve proved myself now and I want another world title. 115lbs is my weight and I want to dominate at that weight for a couple of years.”
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