SCOTT HARRISON could be challenging for the British lightweight title within two fights.
As revealed exclusively in Wednesday's Sport-Times, the former WBO featherweight champion has escaped sanction from the British Boxing Board of Control's Scottish Area Council following an alleged indiscretion at a Rutherglen supermarket in March.
Now Harrison's manager and co-promoter Alex Morrison has started the search for a creditable opponent – likely to be Eastern European – to face the 34-year-old, at the Kelvin Hall, in a 10-round lightweight contest on Friday, June 8.
So confident is Big Alex of a successful return to the ring for Harrison that he is already eyeing newly crowned British lightweight champion Derry Mathews.
The fight godfather said: "We are looking to secure creditable European opposition to meet Scott over 10 rounds and I would hope to have a name within the week. But the reports from training are very positive on Scott and by all accounts he is giving Willie Limond all the trouble he can cope with.
"With Derry Mathews having just beaten Anthony Crolla to claim the British lightweight title, I'd love Scott to win his fight at the Kelvin Hall and challenge him for the Lonsdale belt. I don't think that is a fight that would be hard to make and I'd love to put it on in Glasgow in conjunction with Frank Warren of course."
While no one can predict just how the ravages of seven years outside the ring will impact on Harrison fully until he climbs back in it for real, should the former two-time nine stone champion success-fully negotiate his maiden comeback battle, Mathews would appear tailor made for Harrison.
At 28 years of age and with six defeats from a 37 fight record he has never progressed beyond domestic title level. Indeed his six-round stoppage of Crolla may have been more about the former champion looking past Mathews than anything else.