Simpson-Booth - fifth and final meeting in Coventry tonight by Tom Podmore Mar 1st 2008

Coventry's Neil Simpson and Hull's Tony Booth meet for the fifth time in 13 years on Coventry Sporting Club's three-fight dinner show at the Leofric Hotel – their second meeting in Coventry – with the local hero looking to extend his record to four wins in five over the solid-hitting Yorkshireman. This will also be the second in time in the previous six months that they will have crossed swords. The pair have indulged in a heated and hard-fought rivalry since 1995, a dispute that will finally come to a head over four rounds tonight (March 1). If Simpson wins for a fourth time, and he starts as the pre-fight favourite, then the argument that has been ongoing since Blur were battling it out with Oasis for music supremacy will be settled. However, former Midland Area, British and Commonwealth light-heavyweight champion Simpson has always won the battles that mattered most: a ten-round British light-heavyweight title eliminator in 1999 and a British Masters cruiserweight ten-rounder in September. The British Masters title defeat annoyed 162-fight Booth but delighted Neil, who had to endure years of the entertaining former Central Area and British Masters champion's taunts that the former European title challenger could only win when the contests took place in the Midlands. That comfortable-looking, albeit hard-earned, 97-93 win silenced both Booth, 38, and a partisan East Yorkshire audience at a packed and highly-charged Hull City Hall last autumn. And Simpson admits that Booth will now want to do an impressive and destructive job at the Coventry city centre venue: "Tony really didn't like me beating him in front of his home crowd in September and will be coming to Coventry looking to do the same to me," he said. "But I will be looking to put him away early should the chance come along to do so." ‘Simmo' first met his long-standing foe in an eight-rounder at Cleethorpes Winter Gardens in September 1995. Fifty-two-fight Booth was far too experienced for the nine-bout Willenhall-based scrapper and had his glove raised by the referee at the end of the 24 minutes. Six months later and Neil, now 7-6 (5) and riding high after procuring the vacant Midland Area strap, exacted his revenged over the former British and Commonwealth cruiserweight title challenger via a six-round decision at the Hermitage Leisure Centre in Leicester. Three years passed before the rubber match, the most significant of all four of their meetings. In a ten-round British title eliminator in Coventry, Simpson overcame several mini-scares to outscore Booth in a gruelling contest that left the Ingle-handled showman screaming robbery. Then, as mentioned earlier, they met in that small-hall classic for the vacant British Masters cruiserweight belt in 2007. Neil, 37, whose comfortable win was all the more incredible when you consider it was his first outing for 18 months, outboxed the dangerman at distance. And crowdpleasing Booth, 50-103-9 (11), recently told Hull's East Riding Mail that revenge is something he plans to order from the menu: "I don't feel like I did myself justice in that last contest and am really eager to put in a much better performance on Saturday. "I want to entertain those in Coventry, but also want to go in there and win," he said ahead of the 12-minute contest, the shortest scheduled meeting between the pair. "It will be tough, the fight is only over four rounds, but have been training hard and want to win the last few fights of my career." Neil Tomlinson-trained Simpson, 24-17 (10) and ducking between the ropes in Coventry for only the eleventh time during an up-and-down 14-year professional career that has seen him tackle the best from these shores and the Continent, should have the last word in the bitterly-fought rivalry. Booth will, 18 years after making a losing six-round middleweight debut against Paul Lynch in Watford, finally hang up the gloves on June 14 in professional contest 165. He'll be missed. Face-first but exciting Pat Cowdell-trained Coventry light-welter Joe McCluskey, 4-3-3 (2), boxes Mansfield southpaw Dave Kirk over six with the knowledge that a win will secure him a title fight in May. Atherstone's Danny Coyle, trained by Richie Woodhall, makes his pro debut against Worcester puncher Steve Cooper.

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