Future champs

Boxing in South Wales and Gwent in particular is on the up and Jamie Arthur, Gary Lockett, Tony Doherty, Gavin Rees and Enzo Maccarnelli are stars in the making.

I have no doubt all will be champions of some sort one day, British, European, IBO or whatever - there are so many titles today.

It is too early to say they will become world champions, not many manage that. We won't find out until they face their acid tests. But the potential is there.

For me the acid test was when I fought Chris Eubank. I had had 21 KO wins up until then but most had been against tomato cans.

That fight was a war and fights like that tell you things about yourself you didn't know before.

So we won't know about these young men until the time for their acid tests come around, and in the case of Arthur and Doherty that won't be for a few years yet.

I hope I have done my bit by becoming a world champion and dragging up interest in boxing in South Wales and inspiring others.

It's fantastic that they all have the chance to appear on world title bills, in Arthur's case in only his second pro contest.

It's great exposure and experience for them and something I couldn't have dreamed about at Arthur and Doherty's age.

They have the greatest promoter in the world in Frank Warren. He will make the right matches at the right time against the right opponents.

The world is their oyster and I hope they all go on to be Welsh world champions.

AS for the 13th defence of my super-middleweight title against American Byron Mitchell (on June 28) I can't wait for it to start now.

The three postponements have been very frustrating and I've had to pull back in the past week because of the danger of over-training.

But now I want to get the fight over with and then have a rest before hopefully another defence before Christmas.

People don't realise how hard it is to build up for a fight, then have to prepare again, and then again.

You can't always be on top of your form when the promoters click their fingers and the postponements have been a test of my resolve mentally and physically.

But I feel now I am getting in the zone so to speak and I'm going to take my frustration out on Mitchell.

I don't expect 13 to be unlucky. It's just a number, though it would be nice to get a knock-out in the 13th minute.

Mitchell is none of the top operators in the division and will be the fifth world champion I will have faced in my career, but there's absolutely no way he will defeat me.

Did you see the third Arturo Gatti/Micky Ward junior welterweight clash on TV the other night (Gatti won on points, as he did the second after losing the first)?

The three fights have been absolutely awesome, an inspiration even to me as a world champion. The first fight was amazing, an absolute toe-to-toe battle from start to finish.

Gatti changed style and was different class and won the second but damaged a hand in the third and had to survive with just one weapon in his armoury.

I think he would have stopped Ward otherwise, but nevertheless it was a fantastic fight and the three contests have epitomised all that's good about boxing.

Ward is 37 yet still retains all his enthusiasm and guts. Gatti was a face first fighter I believed was washed up before Buddy McGirt became his trainer and brilliantly changed his style.

In three fights they have hit the daylights out of each other but at the end have been the best of friends. They have both shown mutual respect for each other's bravery, fought with courage and discipline and not with anger and have been a credit to the fight game.

All boxers should be made to look at their contests which is what boxing should be all about.