Boxing: Foster leads title defences

The increasingly bizarre world of professional boxing in Britain continues this weekend with two world title fights at featherweight.

In the first, which will be screened live to about 300,000 people on ITV, Salford's Stephen Foster will defend his World Boxing Union title against Scotland's John Simpson at York Hall in London's East End.

The following afternoon the Oldham-based Mongolian Tseveenpurev Choi meets Kenya's David Kiilu at the Tara Leisure Centre, Shaw, for the vacant World Boxing Federation title. Choi's fight will not be shown on British TV but may be screened in a week's time in Mongolia.

At the same time as Foster and Choi are fighting, the British champion at the weight Andy Morris, from Wythenshawe in Manchester, will be rushing up and down the motorway taking a closer look at potential future opponents.

There was a time in this business when three fighters of the same quality and the same weight would have inevitably met but in the modern sport there are no such certainties. It is a pity because a triangle of fights featuring the three would pull in thousands of local fans in the Manchester area.

* The former world champion Naseem Hamed pleaded guilty to dangerous driving yesterday. He was bailed by a judge at Sheffield Crown Court, who told him it was possible that he would go to prison.