IF Lee McAllister was in any way unnerved by Willie Limond's newly acquired explosive power that ended Eddie Doyle's dream of becoming Commonwealth light-welterweight champion at the St Andrew's Sporting Club on Monday evening, he was displaying no outwards signs of concern yesterday.
McAllister, the previous holder of the belt, praised 33-year-old Limond for the manner of his emphatic win, which was achieved in only one minute and 56 seconds, after he had twice sent Doyle crashing to the canvas in front of a sell-out crowd of 600 who attended the club's 40th anniversary evening.
Yet the Aberdonian, who was forced to relinquish the title because of an arm injury, wasted little time in warning Limond that he only has the belt on loan.
McAllister said: "Willie will have the belt for only a short time. It was an impressive win, but Eddie was like a rabbit caught in the headlights in his first big fight and Willie capitalised on that.
"I was surprised that Willie finished it so quickly, but Eddie lacks his experience and it was evident that he isn't ready to step up into that class. I have every bit as much experience as Willie, though, so he's not going to shock me and show me anything I haven't seen before."
Promoter Tommy Gilmour, who manages both boxers, is keen for the 30-year-old McAllister to have a warm-up bout before he takes on Limond, to rid himself of any ring rustiness.
However, he confirmed: "When Lee relinquished the title, part of the deal was that he would fight the winner of Limond-Doyle. I would envisage him having an eight-rounder first, though, as he is not back in training yet.
"In the meantime, we'll do something with Willie at the Kelvin Hall. The experience he had gained over 39 fights showed the way he jumped on Eddie straight away and knocked him out of his stride. At 10 stone, Willie has a lot to look forward to."
Limond revealed that close family and friends urged him to retire 15 months ago after he suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Anthony Crolla when battling for the British lightweight title.
He added: "They were saying that it was time for me to call it a day, but I knew deep down what was up that night, so I'm glad I didn't take their advice. Against Crolla, I was drained at the weight and so flat it was unbelievable but Crolla helped me spar before this fight and this time I felt strong at the weight."
Meanwhile, Gary Cornish, the undefeated 6ft 7in heavyweight from Inverness, recorded his 12th consecutive win in the supporting bout, outscoring the Hungarian Tamas Bajzath, 60-53.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article