KELLIE MALONEY, who announced last year that she was transitioning genders, will hallmark her return to boxing by helping promote Highland heavyweight Gary Cornish's IBO International title fight at Bellahouston Sports Centre, Glasgow next month.

Having guided former world champion Lennox Lewis to the pinnacle of the heavyweight division under her previous name Frank in the 1990s and also managed and promoted Scott Harrison during the Scot's most successful years as WBO featherweight champion, Maloney turned her back on boxing 18 months ago.

She stated at the time that she was disillusioned with the way boxing was being run and no longer had an appetite for the politics of the sport.

But her passion for boxing has been rekindled by the likes of 28-year-old Cornish, from Inverness, and Tony Jones, a 23-year-old welterweight from Telford, Shropshire.

She was also at pains to point out yesterday during a press conference in central London that her decision to transition genders was not a marketing ploy.

"If people who think that want to go through what I've been through they are welcome to try it and let them walk in my shoes and see how hard it is," she said. "If it was a marketing ploy I should be locked up in a lunatic asylum."

While Cornish's manager, Tommy Gilmour welcomed the opportunity to re-establish a working relationship with Maloney, with whom he previous co-promoted shows, he was also keen to stress that their business arrangement does not extend to the Londoner having any say whatsoever in the boxer's career path.

"I am Gary Cornish's manager and I have made it clear that any decisions affecting him will be taken by me and me alone," he insisted. "As his manager the responsibility of decision-making is mine. Promoting fighters is entirely different from managing them.

"I will call the shots, nobody else. But Kellie Maloney wants to be involved in promoting and his first show will be in association with my son Chris and Iain Wilson on May 23 when Gary fights Zoltan Csala, of Hungary.

"We have a backer in Tommy Pratt of Southwark Metals, who sponsored David Price, and he wants to go on the journey with us.

"We are on a mission to aim Gary towards major championships maybe culminating in him fighting for a world title and we are looking at the whole picture.

"This is not an exclusive deal. If Frank Warren or Barry Hearn were to phone tomorrow asking for Gary to box on one of their shows and I felt the offer was right we would say yes.

"While there are people who want to invest in Gary, It's also important to have freedom of choice. But I am more than happy for Kellie Maloney and Southwark Metals back Gary now and perhaps in the future."

Gilmour went on: "I have had seven world champions but none of them was above 10st 7lbs and Kellie Maloney knows the heavyweight scene better than I do, so she is there for her expertise.

"We also go back a long way and as Frank Maloney, Gary boxed on a number of his shows.

"However, this is certainly not a case of Kellie Maloney taking over as I am Gary's manager, nobody else. But if there a good deal in it for Gary we are prepared to listen to anyone."

Maloney added: "If I put it in football terms, I've been the manager of Manchester United and now I'm going to start managing Nuneaton Borough because I've got to start at the bottom again and there's no getting away from that. The opportunity and personal challenge for me is very big."