Arthur and McDonagh clash at weigh-in

STV

Alex Arthur was ready to start his comeback 24 hours early when he clashed with opponent Peter McDonagh at the weigh-in. McDonagh, an Irish-born Londoner, was the aggressor as the pair stood head-to-head for the gathered press.

The Irish-born Londoner thrust his forehead into Arthur’s as they stood facing each other before pushing forward and making threatening remarks to Arthur.

McDonagh, who has lost four of his last five outings, was trying to rile the former WBO super-featherweight champion but Arthur was having none of it and calmly walked back while his opponent’s team stepped in to hold their fighter back.

McDonagh then threatened Arthur, saying he would knock the Edinburgh fighter “spark out”. These are strong words from a less than average fighter who has more defeats than victories in his 33 fight career and has only ever stopped two opponents – one of those being British champion Michael Gomez who just stopped fighting and turned his back to go out the ring when McDonagh punched him from behind.

Curiously, Arthur’s first defeat was at the hands of Gomez back in 2003 where he lost his British title, but went on to take the WBO title, beating Saturday’s challenger Ricky Burns en route. The 32-year-old lost that title in 2008 on a points defeat to Nicky Cook – a fight he thought he was winning comfortably in – and things went from bad to worse when he lost an eight round decision to light-welterweight Nigel Wright as he tried to get his career back on track.

Arthur is now campaigning at lightweight and has his eye on another world title. He just needs to get past the tough talking McDonagh at Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall on Saturday.

The fight is part of the undercard for Coatbridge boxer Ricky Burns who challenges Puerto Rico’s Roman Martinez for the WBO title. Should Burns succeed he will become only the 13th ever Scot to have won a world title in boxing.

Billed as ‘Burns Night’, the evening also includes Greenock boxer John Simpson’s featherweight Commonwealth title defence against Stephen Smith and former featherweight British Champion Paul Appleby.

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