Unkindest cut

Henry Wharton at the end of his Barbican Centre win over Ukrainian Konstantin Okhrey

The York boxing star's battle of Yorkshire showdown with Leeds' Crawford Ashley has been KO'd by the cut eye Wharton received in a clash of heads in his stoppage win over Ukrainian Konstantin Okhrey just 17 days ago.

After that fight at York's Barbican Centre, Wharton was due to take on Ashley for his European, British and Commonwealth light-heavyweight championships on November 21. The fight, which was eagerly anticipated by the entire Yorkshire fighting public, would open the route to a world title shot for the victor.

But the massive clash has had to be called off because the eye wound Wharton suffered against Okhrey, and which needed five stitches, is still weeping. Now the earliest the two Yorkshire gladiators can come to gloved blows is early in 1999.

Wharton was gutted by the loss of his three-time crack at Ashley. But he insisted he had no alternative once medical advice yesterday decreed the eye had no chance of fully recovering in time to start sparring in two weeks followed by the fight in just over a month's time.

Declared Wharton: "I'm devastated. It was always going to be pushing it, but with having such good healing skin I thought I would be fine.

"But there is still fluid seeping from out of the wound.

"With so much at stake in this fight I just cannot risk going into it trying to protect my eye.

"It's a terrible decision to have made, but it's the right decision. It's the only decision."

The York ring-king, striving to earn a place in boxing's record-books as the only man to have won all three European, British and Commonwealth belts at two distinct weights after originally lifting all three at super-middleweight, said he had to be 100 per cent right for a contest of such magnitude.

"I had arranged some heavy-duty sparring as I would need to do to fight someone like Ashley, but the doctor said no way would the eye stand up to that."There's no chance I can then go into the fight thinking about my eye."

Added Wharton: "Both of us are at a cross-roads in our careers. I'm 31, Crawford is 32 and we know that whoever wins can look at a world title fight and whoever loses will have to re-think everything.

"It's far too important to take any chances."

The only consolation for Wharton and his trainer Gary Atkin, whose inspection of the cut at a training session yesterday prompted the trip to a doctor, was that the details of the November 21 fight had not been fully finalised.

"The only good thing about it is that tickets haven't been printed or posters done," said Wharton. "At least now I know I have the time to get everything right and can look to early in the new year to get the fight on again."

Atkin explained he had spoken to promoter Frank Maloney and to Ashley's handler Tony Breen about the damage to Wharton's eye.

"There honestly could not be any other decision. The cut is right in the hair-line above the eye and there's like diluted blood weeping from it," said the trainer."The injury could not have stood up to sparring in a fortnight so we had no choice."

He added that the likely date for the eventual encounter between the two would be the end of January or early February next year.

King tracks tilt for crown

FIGHTING duke of York Henry Wharton is wanted as a King's man.

Despite the cut-eye setback suffered by Wharton, Don King, America's potentate promoter, has earmarked the big-hitter as a possible main-line attraction should he cement a partnership with British manager and promoter Frank Maloney.

Since he first witnessed Wharton in his debut super-middleweight challenge to world champion Nigel Benn five years ago, King has been an admirer of Wharton's all-action approach. Wharton's trainer Gary Atkin revealed that King asked Maloney, with whom he wants to tie up an Anglo-American agreement, about the prospect of bringing Wharton in as one of his stable of boxers.

Obviously, the front-line attraction remains Maloney's hold as the promoter of heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, plus the potential of Scarborough's new European king Paul Ingle as a realistic challenger to world featherweight champion Prince Naseem Hamed. Ingle's trainer Paul Pollard is due to meet Maloney tomorrow to discuss his man's next move.

But Wharton too is viewed as a major drawing-card on any Stateside bill. Said Atkin: "King has told Maloney that he would be quite happy to stage Henry as well in America."

Any impact under a Maloney-King banner hinges on Wharton's collision with three-time champion Ashley, which is now likely to go ahead in the first six weeks of next year.

Should the York star prevail, then those three titles would reinstate Wharton to the vanguard of world title challengers. And it would also give him an unprecedented place in boxing legend as the man to hold those three titles first at super-middleweight, then at light-heavyweight levels.

Trainer Atkin also revealed that Wharton turned down a world title tilt against Charles 'The Hatchet' Brewer for his International Boxing Federation super-middleweight crown.

Brewer, who beat Sheffield's Herol 'Bomber' Graham to retain his IBF title on the same night as Wharton's American debut eight months ago, wanted to take on the York ace.

But Wharton's days as a super-middleweight are well behind him as he no longer can get down to the 12st limit.

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