19.07.06 – Matthew Macklin admits he’s wondering if his British light middleweight title fight with Jamie Moore will ever happen. The Birmingham fighter is desperate to win a Lonsdale belt but fears that Moore may not give him his chance. The fight has been pencilled in for Manchester on September 29th but having already seen two dates fall through Macklin can only pray it will be third time lucky..
“I’m desperate for the fight and I really hope it’s going to happen this time but I’ve got to say it wouldn’t surprise me if it didn’t,” admitted Macklin.
“It was supposed to happen in May but Jamie pulled out with an injury and then it was rearranged for this Friday but that fell through as well. I don’t understand why because Jamie’s still fighting on Friday night’s card. I was all set as well so the problem certainly wasn’t on my side,” explained the 24 year old.
“Now Jamie’s saying things like he’s struggling at the weight and I just hope he’s not planting a seed so that if he pulls out again he can say it was because of trouble making the weight.
“I know Jamie quite well and he’s a decent lad and a good fighter. I’ve nothing personal against him at all but at the moment he’s holding up my career and it’s very frustrating.
“If he’s not interested in the fight then I’d ask him to give up the title now rather than wait until the fight falls through again. If it does the British Boxing Board of Control will probably have to declare the title vacant and I’ll have to wait for yet another date.
“I really hope Jamie does go through with the fight as he’s a great champion and I would prefer to beat the champion rather than winning the vacant title. But either way I need to get on with my career now and lets be honest so does Jamie.
“He had an easy eight rounder in January that was supposed to be a warm up for me and now on Friday night he’s having another warm up which will probably be no more than a glorified sparring session. Even if he does fight me on September 29th it will still be over a year since he last defended his title. He surely can’t be happy with that level of activity at this stage in his career.”