Boxing: Former WBC super middleweight champion Robin Reid of Runcorn targets £32,000 Prizefighter cheque

Mar 23 2011 Runcorn and Widnes Weekly News

RUNCORN’S former WBC super-middleweight champion Robin Reid believes his experience will count tonight when he continues his boxing comeback – at the age of 40.

The Runcorn man was content with life away from the sport but accepted a new challenge and believes age remains a positive factor in Prizefighter at The Olympia in Liverpool.

The Sky televised tournament, featuring eight professionals, will be fought to a finish this evening with quarter-final, semi-final and final each comprising three three-minute rounds.

The winner will collect £32,000 with Reid saying he would put the sum towards something for his baby son Oscar.

The man from Sutton Park also held the WBF and IBO world title belts in the 12st division but until earlier this month hadn’t fought since November 2007 when he lost a British title fight to Carl Froch.

He returned with a points victory against Jamie Ambler in Bolton.

Reid is in the third quarter-final on this evening’s bill against unbeaten Welsh prospect Tobias Webb.

He insists he still has ambitions in the sport and also has the ingredients to not only get the better of the 22 year-old Webb but go on to lift the trophy.

Reid said: “People are saying I’ve been used to 12 rounds but what a lot of people have forgotten is my England amateur experience which included fighting two or three times in one day.

“At the Olympics in Barcelona, I boxed five times in five days. I’ve plenty of that experience but the advantage I’ve got is going into this is my professional career. I’m more mature but can punch as well.

"I think the experience is going to tell. There are a lot of young lads here – no disrespect to them at all – thinking they’ll go in and start throwing bombs. But you’ve got to have some kind of plan. I’ve been in with fighters like that, in world title fights, where they come and try and take you out in a round.

"You’ve got to cope with it and either give it back or settle down.”