The verdict is unanimous. It is a must-win fight. Alex Arthur will step into the ring against Nicky Cook on Saturday in the MEN Arena to defend his World Boxing Organisation super-featherweight title.
"He must win. He just can't afford to lose," said Jim Watt, the former lightweight champion of the world.
Watt won his world title in his thirties so he is not prepared to be pessimistic about the future of his 30-year-old fellow Scot. Arthur performed poorly in his last fight, against Steve Foster, but Watt believes there were genuine reasons for a lacklustre display.
"He'll have to be a helluva lot better to beat Cook. He's a damned good fighter," said Watt. But the former champion said that Arthur "might not have been up" for the Foster fight, given it was against domestic opposition. He also believes Arthur has weight issues. "At 9st 4lb, he's a massive boxer," said Watt. "Arthur said last week his weight loss was going well and he had just 7lb to lose. In my day, I would have had to cut off a leg to achieve that."
This comment illustrates how important the fight is for Arthur. He is at the crossroads. Defeat will point his career in one direction: downwards. Victory offers at least two prospects. There is the solid possibility of a defence at the weight, though the top players may not be too interested.
"Alex needed to go to fight in the US to make his name," said Watt, who referred to the success of Ricky Hatton in taking his all-action style across the Atlantic. The super-featherweight division holds the substantial talents of Marco Antonio Barrera, Manny Pacquiao, Juan Manuel Marquez and Joan Guzman. It is difficult to see what the Scot can bring to the table for these stellar names, though. Indeed, Guzman was reluctant to fly to Scotland to fight Arthur. There was a variety of theories, excuses and reasons for Guzman's non-appearance. The Scot was thus awarded the world title without putting on a glove.
The alternative for Arthur is to move up in weight to the lightweight division. This option is viewed positively by Watt and Arthur's trainer, Wayne McCullough. The Northern Irishman sees Arthur's future at the heavier weight, but suggests that is somewhat down the line.
Saturday's fight, then, is crucial. Watt believes it will be a tough night for Arthur but that the Scot will be encouraged by the big crowd there to see Amir Khan and will prevail.
The stakes alone are enough to galvanise Arthur. His future is on the line. Cook stands in the way of a lucrative title defence. Defeat would give Arthur the added ignominy of being the answer to a pub question.
"He does not want to join the ranks of those who have been granted a world title and lost his first defence. He does not want to be the answer to what Scot held a world title without winning a fight?'" added Watt.
The former world champion is confident that his fellow-countryman will be spared that fate with a convincing, if hard-fought, victory.
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