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Katsidis to ignore eye injury
Adrian Warren
19:39 AEST Thu Mar 10 2011
Michael Katsidis is determined to fight with an eye injury that threatened to postpone his fight against Robert Guerrero next month and will dare the two-division world champion to target the afflicted area.
Former WBO interim lightweight world champion Katsidis will fight the American at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on April 10 Australian time.
The bout was plunged into doubt after the 30-year-old Queenslander required stitches in a wound inflicted during a sparring session at his training camp in Thailand.
Katsidis told AAP the fight had effectively been called off on medical advice, but he couldn't face the prospect of missing out on the contest.
"I couldn't sleep, I was knocking on my trainer and manager Brendon (Smith's) door at 6.30 in the morning," Katsidis said from Thailand.
"I got up and was doing hundreds of push-ups and I worked my arse off in the morning and afternoon.
"It (the cut) was bad, it wouldn't have got to the point that the fight was off if it wasn't, but I'm a fighter.
"It's just a cut, I will go in there and knock him out."
Asked if he was worried former IBF featherweight and super featherweight world champion Guerrero would target the injury, Katsidis said: "I hope he does ... it's going to be his downfall, I will guarantee that, I really do hope he goes for my eye."
Katsidis is coming off a ninth-round stoppage loss to Mexico's Juan Manuel Marquez.
The Australian, who took the fight just over a month after the death of his brother Stathi, was still ruing his failure to knock the Mexican superstar out after flooring him in the third round.
"I don't know why I didn't do that at the time," Katsidis said.
"My brother just died four weeks before and there were a lot of shoulders to cry on around me at the time, I didn't need that.
"If I hit Guerrero and he goes down like that, I will finish him off, I won't give a sucker a break."
Adrian Warren
19:39 AEST Thu Mar 10 2011
Michael Katsidis is determined to fight with an eye injury that threatened to postpone his fight against Robert Guerrero next month and will dare the two-division world champion to target the afflicted area.
Former WBO interim lightweight world champion Katsidis will fight the American at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on April 10 Australian time.
The bout was plunged into doubt after the 30-year-old Queenslander required stitches in a wound inflicted during a sparring session at his training camp in Thailand.
Katsidis told AAP the fight had effectively been called off on medical advice, but he couldn't face the prospect of missing out on the contest.
"I couldn't sleep, I was knocking on my trainer and manager Brendon (Smith's) door at 6.30 in the morning," Katsidis said from Thailand.
"I got up and was doing hundreds of push-ups and I worked my arse off in the morning and afternoon.
"It (the cut) was bad, it wouldn't have got to the point that the fight was off if it wasn't, but I'm a fighter.
"It's just a cut, I will go in there and knock him out."
Asked if he was worried former IBF featherweight and super featherweight world champion Guerrero would target the injury, Katsidis said: "I hope he does ... it's going to be his downfall, I will guarantee that, I really do hope he goes for my eye."
Katsidis is coming off a ninth-round stoppage loss to Mexico's Juan Manuel Marquez.
The Australian, who took the fight just over a month after the death of his brother Stathi, was still ruing his failure to knock the Mexican superstar out after flooring him in the third round.
"I don't know why I didn't do that at the time," Katsidis said.
"My brother just died four weeks before and there were a lot of shoulders to cry on around me at the time, I didn't need that.
"If I hit Guerrero and he goes down like that, I will finish him off, I won't give a sucker a break."
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