BRITISH heavyweight Frank Bruno, who is here to fight American Ray Mercer on the 'High Noon in Hong Kong' bill on Sunday October 23, hopes to get another shot at a world title within the next six months.
The 32-year-old lost title challenges to Tim Witherspoon in 1986, Mike Tyson in 1989 and Lennox Lewis last year and now he wants to fight Oliver McCall for the American's newly acquired World Boxing Council (WBC) crown.
'Oliver McCall said after beating Lennox Lewis last week he wants to fight Frank and we want that to happen within the next six months,' said George Francis, Bruno's trainer for the last seven years.
'But we've got to win the next fight against Ray Mercer first. Frank is in great shape. He's sparring well and we are confident.' Bruno spent three weeks in Lanzarote, Spain, preparing for the Mercer fight which will be the third match on the four-bout High Noon programme at the open air Hong Kong Stadium on Sunday morning.
Francis said: 'We are expecting it to be hot and sunny and at Lanzarote we got close to the conditions we are expecting here. We are prepared.' Bruno, despite being happy with his preparation, is expecting a hard fight although Mercer is reported to be grossly overweight and 'under motivated'.
Mercer, the 1988 Olympic champion and former World Boxing Organisation (WBO) heavyweight champion, claimed he hurt his leg playing basketball a month ago and the injury had seriously affected his training routine.
