Dilks Designs Damage Plan For Burton Clash

Carl Dilks’ relationship with boxing has been a stormy one featuring several highs, countless lows, and a cluster of controversies during the Liverpool Puncher’s six year career.

The double Prizefighter entrant has had the privilege of providing spectacular knockouts on David Haye heavyweight title events but has also had to endure heartbreaking defeats to the quality names such as James DeGale and Rocky Fielding.

On March 8, Dilks tackles unbeaten Manchester starlet, Hosea Burton, and he insists the intriguing prospect/veteran clash is a springboard to further title opportunities.

“Fighting young up and coming fighters over six rounds is not a position that I ever thought I’d be in during my career,” revealed Dilks. “I’ll be honest, I don’t really know much about Hosea Burton and I’ve had to go on the computer to have a look at him but he looks a good kid.

“The plan is to hopefully take him to places that he’s never been before and I believe that with a proper training camp behind me and the right preparation then I can certainly go in there and get the win that will definitely open more doors for me. I only had about two and a half weeks training for my last fight and when I watch the video back I look terrible. That’s not going to happen this time around.”

The “last fight” that Dilks refers to is the English title opportunity that came his way last October when he was halted in five rounds by city counterpart, Fielding. Following the crushing setback, Dilks announced his retirement from the sport but only months later, like many before him, he was tempted back into the sport when the Burton chance arrived.

“The reason I decided to change my mind about my retirement was because I was just sitting around telling myself that I hadn’t achieved nowhere near what I should have. Look back at my last fight and you’ll see no head movement and no defence whatsoever.

“You probably won’t notice but I’m blowing out my arse after two rounds because I’d done everything wrong in the build-up and I took far too much weight off. Rocky was the better man but I learnt so much about taking fights at short notice and that’s why I’ll have no excuses this time because I’ll be going in 100 percent.”

In Burton, Dilks is opposed by a fighter who the boxing community speak highly of. Two consecutive ABA final appearances from 2009 onwards brought the heavy-handed Burton a single national success and the Joe Gallagher student has had a flawless start to his professional adventure since making his paid bow last March. Despite not possessing much knowledge regarding Burton, Dilks maintains that his upcoming challenger has his full attention.

“This definitely could be the last fight for me because I don’t want to go into that journeyman role giving young prospects four and six round workouts every other month. Burton looks a good boxer but he’s nowhere near the best I’ve been in with but that doesn’t make him anywhere near the worst I’ve been in with either.

“He and his trainer have spoken respectfully of me in the stuff that I’ve read so I’m not going to bad-mouth him in the build-up because that’ll get me nowhere. I’m looking forward to a good fight, a good win and hopefully some sort of title shot or eliminator in the near future.”