The engagement with the 24-year-old Bailey, whose own professional experience has been limited to seven fights, of which he has won three but has never been stopped, is over four rounds. Clearly Warren is not going to get his new prot? "knocked off" at this stage, and who can blame him? But he promises Amir will have a better opposition than Harrison did as his career progresses.While not top of the bill, because of the novelty value of his debut, Amir's appearance will be the main focus for the television broadcast, even though the main event is the British heavyweight title fight between the defending champion, Matt Skelton, and the former champion Danny Williams.The outcome is as hard to forecast as was the 2012 Olympic vote in Singapore. Skelton is all heart, hustle and muscle, while Williams has the skill, the punch and the experience to win if he can put it all together on the night.However, his victory over Mike Tyson was put into perspective when the giant journeyman Kevin McBride then inflicted similar humiliation on the washed-up ex-world champion.Subsequently Williams was dismantled by the Ukrainian Vitali Klitschko, and so brutal was the beating that you wondered about the wisdom of thelikeable Londoner continuing his career. But the scars have healed and Williams insists he still harbours ambitions to win one of the fistful of world titles, though he does say he will retire if he now loses to an opponent who, for all the breathless assaults of his 16 unbeaten contests, remains a 38-year-old novice.It is a fight that could be a thriller or a stinker, depending on how effectively Williams counters Skelton's unskilled labours. The Bedford brawler is not someone with whom you stand toe to toe trading punches. Williams has to box clever, be as brave as he was against Tyson and more resilient than he was against Klitschko. That way he can at least regain the title on points over 12 rounds..
Mike East has enjoyed finer moments on the track in Manchester. Third place in heat two of the 1500m at the Norwich Union World and Commonwealth Trials and AAA Championships in the Manchester Regional Arena yesterday was not quite up there with first place in the Commonwealth Games 1500m final across the way in the City of Manchester Stadium three years ago. Still, the mere sight of the Portsmouth athlete back in action was a welcome one for British athletics. It was the first venture into a competitive arena this summer by the standard-bearer of British men's middle-distance running.
East was the only male British athlete who reached an Olympic final on the track in an individual event in Athens last summer, finishing sixth in the metric mile. Since then, the 26-year-old has been hampered by injuries to his right knee and his left hip, although he suffered no obvious problems yesterday as he eased into a qualifying place for the final, content to finish behind Chris Mulvaney and Nick McCormick. "I'm fine, but I'm obviously not race fit," East said afterwards. The headline in the Irish Independent, in a size reserved for very special sporting events, proclaimed it all. But once selected there can be no changing horses in this particular stream. Maybe Australia would prefer to play against Bell, but doing what they prefer does not make it wrong.Buchanan said: "I have told a few of the players that when we come out of it we will be a hell of a lot better for it. We may come out of it tomorrow, we may not, but I know we're heading in the right direction and we will have achieved that before the end of the summer." That was not philosophy, however That was Buchanan's Prayer..
