KO'd - by a cold! FORMER Commonwealth flyweight champion Daren Fifield was forced to postpone his scheduled comeback fight against London's Mark Reynolds at Peterborough on Saturday.

The 29-year-old, from Kennington, was to have stepped into the ring for the first time since 1996, but withdrew after going down with a heavy cold.

"I couldn't afford to be less than 100 per cent," Fifield said. "I've been away for so long that it would have been silly to take any chances, especially with a bloke with a real dig like Reynolds."

Fifield will now meet Southern Area champ Reynolds on the undercard of the British and Commonwealth title fight between Keith Knox and holder Damaen Kelly in Belfast on May 22.

It is a bill that Fifield was due to be topping until the British Boxing Board of Control decided last week not to sanction him as a challenger because of his three-year absence from the sport.

But Fifield is confident that the Board will relent if he wins well against Reynolds.

"I've got people with influence around me and they reckon that I'll get the go-ahead to fight the winner of Knox and Kelly if I can get past Reynolds. "He's fought for the British title, and if I beat him, then, with my record, they're going to take notice.

"When Kelly won the vacant British title, he beat a guy who had only been stopped once in 40-odd fights - and that was by me."

Fifield added: "It's no secret that I won the Commonwealth title too soon and had too many hard battles. But I've been away and done the naughty things and I'm raring to go.

"People say I'm old for a flyweight, but I'm a young 29-year-old. I've got a better head now because I've been running an amatuer club and helping to train fighters, so I know the game better now."

Story date: Monday 26 April

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