Paul Upham is a senior boxing writer for SecondsOut.com and writes regular weekly articles for AussieBox.com.au. In 2003 he was rated No.11 amongst the worlds best boxing writers. He has appeared on air as a boxing analyst for Main Event Pay-Per-View, Sky Channel, Fox Sports, Sky News Australia, SBS television and radio 2UE and writes monthly for The Fist magazine..

by Paul Upham

Australian junior middleweight contender Shannan “Blaster” Taylor has new motivation to become a world champion after the birth of his first child to partner Rebecca over the weekend. Nathalia Taylor was born on Saturday at 10.20am and weighed 7.2lbs.

“She is my princess,” said an elated Taylor. “I’m on top of the world. I know now the feeling Danny Green has about his own daughter. It’s an unbelievable sensation and I have never felt like this before.”

Determined that his WBC welterweight title loss to Sugar Shane Mosley in March 2001 will not be the high point of his career, IBF No.9 rated Taylor is expected to return to the ring on January 23 or on another card in February in his continuing quest for another world title shot. New boxing promoter Glenn Wheatley has committed himself to helping Taylor any way he can to help him achieve his goal.

In other Australian boxing news, rumours persist that Australia’s two best cruiserweights Glen Kelly and Daniel Rowsell will finally meet in April…OPBF and IBF Pan Pacific middleweight champion Sam Soliman will defend his titles against Korean champion Han-Chul Kim in March…Nader Hamdan is likely to face Sean Sullivan for the vacant OPBF & IBF Pan Pacific super middleweight titles also in March…Kostya Tszyu will fly out of Sydney for Moscow, Russia on January 22 for his February 7 rematch with Sharmba Mitchell…Tszyu and Anthony Mundine, who live close together in Sydney’s southern suburbs, have seen each other during a number of early morning runs. Mundine took time out from his own training regime for his January 19 defence against Yoshinori Nishizawa to pop into the Tszyu Boxing Academy to watch the undisputed champion work out. “We have a chat whenever we run into each other and I said I’ll come down and pop in and hopefully I can learn some more tricks of the trade off him,” said the ‘Man".

Tickets for Mundine’s first WBA title defence at the Wollongong Entertainment Centre are on sale at Ticketek for $500, $350, $175, $100 and $50

Brian Kirwan’s Red Corner Promotions has a February 20 card at the Brisbane Broncos Club titled “Rise of a Champion” headlined by Michael “Rocky” Katsidis in his Brisbane debut against an overseas opponent to be announced. In the main support, Peter Rolph and Arama Tabuai will battle for the QLD middleweight title…

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