Boxing: Weaver set for TV fight (From Thisisdorset)

Boxing: Weaver set for TV fight

7:00am Friday 8th May 2009 in Sport By Phil Chard

IAIN Weaver insists live TV coverage of his Amateur Boxing Association senior featherweight title fight won’t put him off his game.

The Ferndown-based teenager takes on Manchester’s Blain Younis in front of a live audience at Sheffield tonight.

But the action from the English Institute of Sport will also be screened live by Setanta Sports 2 whose transmission of the ABA championship finals’ night begins at 7.30pm.

It will be the first time Commonwealth Youth Games gold medallist Weaver – who is expected to take to the ring at about 9pm – will have boxed under the spotlight of live TV.

But the London 2012 prospect vowed the added attention of people watching his bout from all around Britain from the luxury of their own sitting rooms won’t hinder him.

The Olympic hopeful said: “It’s great the fight is going to be on live TV, although I don’t feel any extra pressure and won’t be treating it any differently than I do a normal fight.

“I’m just looking forward to the final and am concentrating on that.

“They showed my Commonwealth Youth Games quarter-final victory over Vikas Krishna on delayed transmission on Indian TV in October.

“That’s the closest I’ve come to live TV, so it’s new territory for me.

“But I’m just focusing on what I have to do inside the ring.”

Weaver added: “I watched him (Younis) box twice last weekend in the quarter and semi-finals and he’s a strong kid who is very fit, but I’m confident.

“I’m always confident, although I’m going into it thinking it’ll be a hard fight and I’ll just do my best.”

Weaver’s father Jay, one of the 19-year-old’s coaches, said: “Iain’s really up for it.

“He’s maturing and getting stronger all the time.

“On Monday we had a sparring partner come to the Golden Ring gym and Iain knocked him out.”

Younis, 26, is a southpaw with 24 wins in 30 amateur bouts who knocked out highly-rated Mike Hatfield in the quarters.

Jay said: “Iain will have to be on top of his game to beat him.”