I'd leave Hopkins out for the count

I have spoken to promoter Frank Warren this week and he assures me that it will be so recognised and I'm sure that will be the case.

But I have told Frank that there is no way I will go ahead with the contest unless it is for the world title.

Meanwhile, I am training hard in expectation that confirmation will come through and I'm looking forward to the bout.

I'm training twice a day and sparring to get myself in good shape and there will be no problem making the 12st limit.

At my last fight, Kabary Salem's management succeeded in getting under my skin when they tried to claim I was overweight and had got off the weighing-in scales before they could check.

But I was within the limit then and I will be in Belfast though, as I've said before, it doesn't get any easier to take weight off as you get older.

One exception appears to be world middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins, a thorough professional who has kept himself in terrific shape and looked superb when he successfully defended his title at the age of 40 against Howard Eastman.

Having said that, wasn't it a boring fight and didn't it prove once again that it's a joke to call Hopkins the best pound for pound fighter in the world?

He has always been over-rated and if we fought right now I'd knock him out.

He ran scared against Eastman and didn't want to trade punches. He won the fight alright, but only because Eastman lacked the tactical know-how.

A lot of Hopkins' fights have been of a similar nature and though he has beaten some top men such as Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya, they have only been top men in the welterweight or light-middleweight divisions.

He has been very shrewd and has never fought a bigger guy and he knows if he were to move up to my weight and challenge me he would take a hiding.

Right now, if he fought unbeaten fellow America Jermain Taylor, ranked four in the world, he would lose and for that reason I don't see it happening.

On the Hopkins-Eastman bill, Britain's Junior Witter defeated Lovemore N'Dou for the Commonwelath light-welterweight title and, despite carrying a hand injury from early in the fight, was impressive enough to be taken on by De La Hoya's promoting company.

I think that's a very good move for Witter because he is not with Frank Warren now, so I can never see him fighting Ricky Hatton as everyone in Britain wants.

Hatton apart, he has beaten all the top fighters in Europe and has nothing to prove and he can make a lot of money in the USA against the top Yanks and could get a shot at one of the American world champions.

Witter's a name for the future but this week a name from the past popped up again when Mike Tyson announced he was on yet another comeback trail.

Personally, I'm not really interested in Tyson and wouldn't even turn on the TV to watch him fight.

He was washed up ten years ago and his defeat by Danny Williams, an ordinary heavyweight even by British standards, must surely have proved that to anyone with any sense.

But the Tyson name still seems like a magnet to some and he is obviously hoping for a couple of easy fights against bums before hoping for a big pay day with a shot at Vitali Klitschko's world crown.

He doesn't deserve it, shouldn't get it and will be hammered if he does. But, as I said, I'm not really interested.

Meanwhile my advice to Britain's OIympic silver medallist Amir Khan would be to turn professional right now and make some money while he can.

He pulled out of the ABA quarter-finals this week over a row over tickets for the show while in his first senior fight he was put on the canvas by Mancunian Craig Watson and was very wobbly for about twenty seconds.

As I said in this column just after his Olympics success, no-one knows what the future holds and he should strike while the iron's hot, turn pro for top money and secure his future.

If he hangs on as an amateur and suffers a shock defeat or two he could very quickly be forgotten, the big money may no longer be on offer and the future won't look so rosy.