SCOTT Harrison is adamant that he can turn back time when he faces French Algerian Brahim Bariz at the Kelvin Hall on Friday night in his first fight in more than six years.
The former WBO featherweight champion has at last regained control of a chaotic private life and has looked in peak condition as he attempts to re-launch himself at lightweight, some nine pounds above the nine-stone limit of the featherweight division he ruled in two spells between 2002 and 2005.
The boxer knows he has to overcome a sceptical public that has watched him press the self-destruct button several times in a career blighted by alcolhol and several run-ins with the legal profession at home and abroad.
That included a lengthy piece of incarceration in a Spanish jail after he was convicted of assaulting two men.
Now, having hooked up with Glasgow promoter Alex Morrison, the fighter is bidding to rekindle the flickering embers of a career that once burned so brightly.
For his part Harrison is in no doubt that he is in better shape than he was during his time at the top.
The 34-year-old declared: "In coming back at lightweight, it has really come home to me just how bad things were trying to do nine stone when it was obvious that it was killing me trying to make that weight. I am so much stronger and relaxed about things and 100% focused on Bariz.
"I know this is my last chance and there is no point looking any further ahead than the Kelvin Hall on Friday night.
"I know people have their doubts about me and that I have work to convince them I can make this a success. How I perform against Bariz is the first and most important step in that process."
o Tickets priced £100 ringside, £60, £45 and £30 are available on 0141 554 7777.
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