THE return of professional boxing to Dundee after an absence of 23 years engendered somewhat differing reactions from the main protagonists at the city's Ice Arena, Willie Limond and Craig McEwan.
Both recorded 60-54 points successes over their respective opponents, William Wartburton and Jay Morris. Limond was satisfied with that outcome after making his comeback 10 months after losing a British title fight to Anthony Crolla, but McEwan was far less enamoured.
Limond, the veteran Glasgow light-welterweight, feels he is now ready to challenge the winner of next month's Commonwealth title bout between champion Lee McAllister and Eddie Doyle after producing a competent performance at the weekend. However, Edinburgh middleweight McEwan is demanding a better class of opponent in future after claiming that his win over hapless Englishman Morris was little more than a work-out.
"My opponent wasn't up to much, to be honest," said McEwan, who has spent most of his career fighting in the United States. "I was assured that Morris was tough and strong, but he came to survive and even I got fed-up in the end. It was little more than a glorified sparring session and I went through the motions, never having to move out of second gear.
"I had him down in the first, but I am disappointed the way the fight panned out. I need to be fighting the top guys to bring out the best in me. Hopefully I will now move on to bigger and better things."
McEwan is looking to carve out a reputation in British fight circles and hopes to fight on a bill in Manchester next month after revealing that trainer Billy Nelson has been in negotiations with southern promoter Eddie Hearn.
The 30-year-old was also keen to stress that he has not given up on his American dream, though, after amassing 19 wins from 21 contests. He made his home debut in April when he outclassed Paul Morby at Meadowbank Sports Centre but remains in touch with his promoter in the US, Oscar de la Hoya, who the Scot maintains is still working on his behalf.
Meanwhile, Limond's representative, manager Tommy Gilmour, plans feature the 33-year-old on the Inverness bill with heavyweight hope Gary Cornish this month. "I have set the wheels in motion for him to have a title fight before the end of the year," he said. "McAllister and Doyle are on his radar."
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