Boxing: Elcock can improve

It is obvious Birmingham's Wayne Elcock is still some way short of being considered the best middleweight prospect in Britain. And on Saturday night he was fortunate to survive and win a deserved points decision against the Belarussian Yuri Tsarenko.

It was Elcock's 10th fight, but, at 28, he is clearly running out of years to acquire the necessary amount of learning fights before making the move from novice to decent fighter. At the Wembley Conference Centre, Tsarenko nearly finished Elcock in round nine of what was a very ordinary 10-round encounter.

If Elcock and his management, who have optimistically dubbed him the new Randolph Turpin, truly believe in their elderly prospect's ability, then they will have to take a good, long, hard look at the available list of British middleweights and take a risk, because Elcock will not learn unless he has more fights like Saturday's encounter.

There are several so-called prospects in Britain who would undoubtedly benefit from the kind of 10-round work-out that Elcock had, and there are some hopeful signs that promoters are willing to take slight risks with their over-protected product.

Elcock could have so easily met another one of the seemingly endless list of losers that parade in the opposite corners for house fighters to beat, but thankfully he met Tsarenko and came out on top. And hopefully his next fight will be an improvement.