Horton's Midland title future set

Stourbridge's Midlands champion Sam Horton takes in his last fight at super middleweight admitting that his run with the title is all but over.

The 24-year-old is pencilled in to take on 36-year-old Sabie Montieth without the title on the line at Coventry's Hilton Hotel tomorrow, in a division where the banging bus driver has already taken the area belt and an International Masters crown after outpointing Jamie Ambler in late January.

The Masters win was his first response to a damaging second round knockout loss to Cello Renda in a British title eliminator last September, which remains his only outing at middleweight in a 15-fight pro career.

But Horton and trainer Errol Johnson insist the middle is where 'the Man' will look to avenge that loss as the year wares on, but the British Boxing Board of Control have ordered him to defend his area title against Matthew Hainy by the end of June, with the deadline for purse bids set to expire today.

Having already beaten Hainy to win the belt last May, Horton's camp would rather vacate and move down then fight him all over again.

He said: "Once I get the preparation and the right notice, I can make middleweight perfectly fine. I got down to 11st 6lb for the Renda fight, and I had three weeks to do it. In my head that is my natural division, but I like fighting at super middle because I haven't got to kill myself to get the weight down.

"But I believe I am good as anybody in the Midlands in either class. I would have fought Hainy again but my trainer doesn't want me to, because he feels that I should now compete where I am more naturally suited.

"So it looks as if I am going to give up the title."

A dangling carrot for the Stourbridge fighter is the possibility of a Midlands title shot at middleweight against Kevin Concepcion in the summer, should Birmingham's Tony Randall vacate the belt to move down to light middle as expected.

Wolverhampton Civic Hall has also been mentioned to stage the fight on their Sunday bill in June, but Horton for now just wants to concentrate on the task in hand tomorrow.

He said: "I just want to get the rounds in, to be honest. I am not going in there for a war, because there's no sense of getting into a brawl and walking onto a shot. I will be looking to box."