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Boxing: Woodhall claims age is on his side for Malinga title fight

Tuesday 24 March 1998 00:02 GMT
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RICHIE WOODHALL has insisted that he will dethrone the World Boxing Council super-middleweight champion, Thulane "Sugar Boy" Malinga, later this week, claiming that time has finally caught up with the veteran South African.

The title bout will take place in Woodhall's home town of Telford on Friday and he said: "I will never have a better chance to win a world title and I know that I am going to be the world champion. Malinga can't go on forever and I feel my time has come to be the world champion."

Malinga beat Runcorn's Robin Reid to regain the title in December and Woodhall was at ringside for that fight.

Woodhall said: "It really has been put on a plate for me to fight for the title in my home town. I know that some people have said that I have been lucky to get a shot after just one fight as a super-middleweight, but I really haven't had much luck before in my career so I think that I am due a change of fortune."

Woodhall's only defeat came when he made his first challenge for a world title against the WBC world middleweight champion, Keith Holmes, in Maryland in October 1996.

He was stopped in the last round and admitted: "The passion wasn't there in that fight. But that won't happen this time in front of my own fans."

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