Gary Cornish’s coach Liam Foy feels the Highlander still has big-fight potential left in him.
Defeat by Sam Sexton in the British heavyweight title contest in October knocked Cornish but Foy, who started his second spell with the Invernessian at the end of last year, sees him more than capable of getting back into championship form.
Cornish makes his first appearance since that Sexton bout on Friday against David Howe, a six-foot-eight fighter from Sheffield with a 14-6 record. He went into the Sexton contest undercooked after changing trainers less than three weeks before the fight.
Foy – head coach at Inverness club Highland Boxing Academy – coached Cornish during his days as an amateur and would not have got back on board with the 30-year-old if he felt his career was on the wane.
He said: “Looking at the bigger picture with Gary, does he still have big fights in him and the potential to reignite his career? He still believe he does. He’s far from over and I’m honoured to be part of his journey.
“If I thought he was going to step in the ring on the 26th and deliver the same performance he did against Sexton, I wouldn’t want to be part of it. It was such a poor performance it wouldn’t be hard to better that. How he wins I’m not fussed – just as long as he wins.”
The fight is only six rounds at Glasgow’s Crowne Plaza, part of MTK Scotland’s Burns Supper show.
Cornish was in Glasgow a fortnight ago for sparring with MTK’s fellow heavyweight Jay Carrigan-McFarlane and was in Liverpool at Derry Mathews’ gym last weekend to put his final rounds of preparation in.