A title defence in Inverness the prize for Gary Cornish if he claims British heavyweight crown
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
THE prize of a British title defence in his home town awaits Gary Cornish – if he defeats Sam Sexton next month.
A date has already been pencilled in for a potential show in Inverness, if Cornish can overcome Sexton for the heavyweight crown at Ravenscraig at the end of May.
Cornish’s manager Sam Kynoch believes there will be no greater incentive for the Highlander to get the job done against Sexton than to repay the hardy supporters who have travelled to support him throughout his career.
Tentative discussions were had last year, when Cornish was with previous manager Tommy Gilmour, over whether a show in Inverness would be feasible. However, the financial backing was not in place to put those plans into anything concrete.
But with momentum gathering behind the 29-year-old ahead of his date with Sexton, there is another rather appetising carrot dangled in front of him.
“The focus is on this fight for Gary and it will be onwards and upwards from there,” said Kynoch, MTK Scotland’s promoter.
“It’s key that he wins this fight because we’d be looking to bring him up to Inverness for his first defence. It would be great to have that for the British title.
“There’s no bigger incentive for Gary. That’s what he needs to get to the next level.”
Cornish and Sexton are the mandatory contenders for the belt, which was vacated by Dillian Whyte in January. The fight will take place at Ravenscraig Regional Sports Centre on May 20, under the Prospect Boxing banner.
Should he win the title, Cornish would be the first Scot to win a heavyweight champonship.
Former joiner Cornish made the decision to go full-time with his boxing career at the end of last year, feeling he had reached a crossroads and needed to throw all he had at the sport.
He joined forces with Kynoch and MTK and one of the first things laid on the table was a fight in Inverness. He has boxed at the Drumossie Hotel and the Ironworks previously but a larger venue will be needed for a prospective title bout. Preparation for the Sexton fight could not be better. Cornish was in Australia last month with stable-mate David Brophy, as he claimed the Commonwealth super-middleweight title.
Cornish took in a week-long training camp in Melbourne alongside Brophy and his coach Billy Nelson, who has been charged with restructuring Cornish’s style ahead of the title bout.
A big difference for him is sparring. While part-time in Inverness, there were fights where Cornish had no sparring before getting into the ring.
Now, training at Nelson’s gym in Airdrie, he has cruiserweight Stephen Simmons and this week Kynoch announced that Jay McFarlane, the teenager who fought in Madison Square Garden in just his third fight last month, has also been training with Cornish.
“They did 12 rounds of sparring together on Monday and that’s six-and-a-half weeks out from the fight,” said Kynoch. “He would go full training camps without sparring in the past, whereas he’s now getting it day in, day out. There’ll be some more big names to come.”
While the Sexton fight has come a bit earlier than Cornish’s camp expected, there were no reservations about taking the suggested date.
He has boxed just three times since his only career defeat, against Anthony Joshua in September 2015, and Nelson admitted he was effectively starting from scratch with the fighter’s technique.
An injury sustained during the points win over Kamil Sokolowski in February put paid to Cornish returning to the ring at the end of March, which does not unduly worry Kynoch.
“He’s had a fight to shed the ring rust and he’s better for it,” added the promoter.
Sexton is a former Commonwealth champion and has a 23-3 record, losing only to Dereck Chisora (twice) and David Price. He was due to challenge Whyte for the title before the latter decided to chance his arm on the world stage.
The next challenger for the belt has not been decided yet, although Doncaster-born heavyweight Dave Allen (11-2) has already stated his ambition to win the crown.
For now, a potential home defence should be enough to focus Cornish’s mind on the task at hand.
“It doesn’t get much better than that and Gary knows from when we first sat down and discussed it, we targeted this one,” said Kynoch.
“We want to get him up to Inverness for a defence, which would be a massive event.”
