WILLIE LIMOND believes his first defence of the British light-welterweight title can give his Indian summer a golden hue.
The Scot won the Lonsdale belt at the third time of asking, aged 36, last June, 15 years after he first laced up professionally, with a career best performance against Curtis Woodhouse that saw him claim a 12 round points decision, at the Braehead Arena.
Now with Limond's maiden defence of the domestic 140lbs belt having finally been confirmed against unbeaten Welshman Chris Jenkins at the First Direct Arena, in Leeds on April 11, the Glaswegian is determined to use his title defence as a launch-pad to an assault on a European belt which could in turn pave the way for a belated world title bid.
However, although European champion Michele di Rocco's camp have once again opened talks with Team Limond over a fight that was originally supposed to have happened last November, the Scot knows that beating Jenkins is a must if he is to realise his aim of fighting the Italian.
Limond said: "I have already been in full training for the Jenkins fight for a few weeks and it is good to finally have the date and the venue confirmed. Obviously I would prefer to be making the first defence of my British title in Glasgow but that is boxing and all that matters is I win.
"We have been talking to Michelle di Rocco and his camp have indicated he may be prepared to defend against me in May. If that is to happen I need to come through Jenkins, so this is a must-win fight for me on two fronts.
"Firstly, it took me three attempts to win the British title and to finally achieve that at 36 is something I am proud of and the Lonsdale Belt is something I really treasure.
"But, secondly, it is the gateway fight for me. I am currently ranked 15 by the WBC and No.1 in Europe at 140lbs and if I come through Jenkins and get a crack at di Rocco and win that, then you never know where that could take me, but it would certainly give me a top 10 WBC ranking.
"I might be 36 but I am still fresh and since I have started my personal training business I have never been fitter and if the Jenkins fight goes long then he will find that out."
European champion di Rocco must first come through his own title defence against Dane Kasper Bruun in Milan on Saturday week, but if he does so the Italian's next defence will be a voluntary and it is understood he has already given Limond assurances that will be against the Scot if di Rocco retains home advantage.
Limond is adamant that will not lead to any loss of focus against Jenkins.
The British light-welterweight champion said: "The di Rocco fight has been on and off so many times now that it is not something I get worked up about. In any case it would be disrespectful to Jenkins if I took my eye off the ball."
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