Mark Harnell


Alex Arthur says a lack of experience could prove the undoing of Sergey Gulyakevich when the pair meet for the European super-featherweight title on April 29.

And champion Arthur also shrugged off the fact that the undefeated Belarusian has come in at short notice, replacing a much more straightforward Commonwealth title defence against George Ashie.

"He's obviously ambitious and he?ll be coming to try and take the title away from me," said Arthur. "And looking at his record, you can tell he can punch because he's won his last four fights by knockout.

But the fact that I've been a championship fighter for so long now could be the big difference.

"I've just done 12 hard rounds with Ricky Burns and hardly took a day out of the gym following the fight, while Gulyakevich has been having these one and two round blowouts.

"He's a come forward fighter so I won't have to go looking for him, and we'll see how good his conditioning is when I fire in the body shots."

The pair duke it out at the Meadowbank Arena, Edinburgh next Saturday night, and Arthur knows he has to beat the Eastern European to maintain his push for a world title opportunity.

And he'll have to do so without the help of Wayne McCullough, who was a welcome addition to Arthur's corner the night he beat Burns.

McCullough is preparing for a world title fight against WBC super-bantamweight champion Israel Vasquez later this year, and will be absent at the Meadowbank.

Arthur is used to such disruptions though, having had a string of high-profile corner-men since turning professional.

However one constant has been under-rated Owen Smith, and he will be joined by American Brian Clemens, who was also present when Arthur out-pointed Burns.

"Brian will be there and he is very, very experienced, and Owen knows me inside out, so it won?t be a problem," said Arthur.

The Scot was straight back in the gym following his win over Burns " against whom he has been sparring - in February, and can also draw on a three-week Las Vegas training camp he undertook with McCullough straight after Christmas.

"I'm in great shape and haven't had to worry about the weight or anything like that," said Arthur. "I've been able to concentrate on sparring and getting ready for this fight."

Until now his preparations haven't included watching footage of Gulyakevich on video, but Arthur is now in possession of tape of his opponent.

"I'll be sitting down and watching it over the next couple of days and letting my corner see it as well," said Arthur. "But I'm not a great one for analysing videos, and I don't think it will throw up anything I'm not expecting."