Earlier today Michael Katsidis and his manager Brendon Smith issued a statement saying that an agreement had been reached with Graham Earl and that the long awaited rematch of their epic 2007 encounter will take place in Queensland, Australia later this year.
Their first encounter, for the WBO interim Lightweight title, took place before a packed house at Wembley Arena. The fight rightly earned the 2007 Fight of the Year honours as the fans were treated to a full on battle royale. For five action packed rounds the pair traded punches. Both tasted the canvas, Earl three and Katsidis once before Graham’s corner retired him on the stool.
Earlier today Graham responded to Michael and Brendon’s statement, “Yeah, brilliant, we’re finally there. Once we’ve got the contracts and we’ve signed them it’ll be all systems go.
We’re looking at the end of August or early September but no later than the first week of September. Location wise I’m not a hundred percent sure other than it will be in Queensland.
I know that there are a lot of doubters out there and obviously I can’t blame them.
With regards to the loss to Henry Castle that was purely down to a fighter shouldn’t have to train himself and having no sparring. To be honest with you it wasn’t very professional and that’s what that all came down to.
I know that there are a lot of doubters out there that are saying ‘no you shouldn’t fight you’ll get hurt’ and that, but most of these people have not been in the ring before.
People get hurt when they don’t do the weight and cut out the fluids and food. I’ve been there and see it happen. But I’ve always done it right and I will always do it right.
I’ve been training, I’ve been ticking over myself. I didn’t want to go jump the gun until it’s a hundred percent done deal. We’ve been here before, maybe once or twice before and it’s gone off.
Now it’s finally here and it’s really going to happen so now I’ll sit down and start putting it together and work out what we want to do.
I can’t wait to avenge my loss of 2007. It’s going to be another war, I have no choice on that as it’s the way Katsidis fights. To be honest with you it’ll be a tough, tough fight but I found it quite easy fighting that way last time.
I’ve seen that fight so many times in my head there wont be any half heartedness from me. I’ll make sure that and give the fans the fight they want and deserve.”
An announcement, giving the date and location of the highly anticipated rematch, is expected shortly.
