Team Haymer Confident Of Boxing Victory In Oakey Rematch

With less than two weeks to go before his first ever British title fight, London based light heavyweight Peter Haymer has been tearing through sparring partners at an alarming rate as he prepares for a rematch with reigning British champion Tony Oakey on a Frank Maloney promotion at York Hall on Friday, February 1, 2008.

“Peter has been looking very good in training and I’m very confident that he’ll beat Oakey again,” said Haymer’s trainer/manager Chris Hall, a former amateur boxer who is also founder and director of the well respected London Boxing Academy. “It’s going to be either a very close fight or I think Peter might be able to stop him, but that’s a big task because Oakey’s never been stopped.”

For Haymer to fulfill Hall’s prediction, the hard nosed St. Pancras native must make better use of his five inch height advantage as he was forcibly dragged into a bruising 12 rounds of trench warfare by the much shorter Oakey in June of 2005 and had to summon every ounce of energy to eke out a razor thin points verdict to retain his English title at the time.

Haymer, 17-4-1 (5), will also have to reverse his lack of momentum going into this contest as he has suffered defeats in his last two outings while Oakey, 24-2-1 (6), hasn’t lost a bout in all six of his appearances since the first Haymer clash, including a British title win against Steve Spartacus in May of last year.

But Hall feels that Haymer’s recent disappointments were circumstantial in nature and in one case, could even serve to spur his trainee on through what is sure to be a hotly contested British title challenge against a motivated champion.

“Peter improved immensely for a year and a half after the first Oakey fight but was going through personal issues that I think had a lot to do with his dreadful performance when he challenged for the Commonwealth title in 2006; he just wasn’t himself that night,” said the trainer, who won three national titles as an amateur boxer and has university degrees in Sports Science and Management.

“Since then we had a fight with a good boxer called Paul David, which I thought Peter won but he lost it on a close points decision from the referee. We were supposed to be fighting Steve Spartacus on that occasion but a couple of days before that, Spartacus took a British title fight against Oakey and David was the late replacement opponent. Peter was really cheesed off because he had wanted to fight Oakey for the British title but instead ended up watching two guys that he had already beaten, Oakey and Spartacus, fight for the belt.”

It’s a must win situation for Haymer as a loss would make domestic title challenges a thing of the past for the 29 year old Londoner, but Hall is certain that “The Daddy” can regain his footing as one of the premier light heavyweights in the UK.

“Peter is bigger and stronger than Oakey and hits very hard; I’ve always fancied Peter being able to stop him,” he said. “We hurt Oakey several times in the first fight but Peter never followed up. I’m really hopeful that in this fight, if we catch him with a couple of good shots, that we actually follow up, as we intend to. Peter’s really strong, really fit and he been been fitter and stronger for the last four weeks than he was for the first Oakey fight. We’re really optimistic that we’re going to be taking the title home.”

Frank Maloney Promotions presents “The Return” featuring Tony Oakey vs. Peter Haymer for the Light Heavyweight Championship of Great Britain at York Hall in Bethnal Green, London, England on Friday, February 1, 2008.

A full undercard features top heavyweight John McDermott, flashy super feather Kaash “The Bash” Bhatia, light heavyweights Tony Salem and Courtney Fry, welterweights Mark Thompson and Yassine El Maachi, lightweights Lee Cook and Danny Harding along with super feather Henry Castle, welterweights Scott Woolford and Jamie Radford, light welter Ross Hewitt and Women’s boxing sensation Laura Saperstein.

Tickets are priced at £75 Ringside and £40 Open Seating and are available by logging onto www.frankmaloney.com or by calling the Box Office at 0871 226 1508. Doors open at 6:45PM with first bell at 7PM.

Sky Sports will televise live on SS1 starting at 9:30PM.