Opportunity knocks for Coventry’s Richard Evatt on Saturday when he fights for a World Boxing Title one year after failing a brain scan.

He was forced to spend nine months out of his sport, but in Manchester the 25-year-old featherweight takes on the biggest scrap of his career against the American ‘Poison’ Junior Jones.

Evatt says:

"When I failed the first I thought my world had come to an end. There was a slight abnormality on the scan and so they failed me."

He worked for his father for a time as a pipe layer, but then passed his next scan and immediately returned to the boxing ring.

Now he is at the pinnacle and he says:

"It’s a dream when I think back to a year ago. I was surprised to be offered a world title fight, but I am ready."

But top boxing judges question whether he is ready for the sort of opponent represented by Jones, who is the former world bantamweight champion and has fought a string of top fighters.

The American is rated one of the best fighters, pound-for-pound, in the world and he says:

"I have watched videos of Evatt in action and I have trained for this fight as though my life depends on it."

Jones has lost only four of his 45 fights while Evatt has lost just once in 16 fights. Evatt is respected for his knock out punch in either fist and has K.O.d fourteen of his opponents. But Jones has 26 knockouts in his record.

The two men fight for the IBO World Featherweight Championship of the World on the undercard of Naseem Hamed’s WBO Featherweight Championship of the World fight against Paul Ingle. The winner of the Evatt-Jones fight could be lined up as a future opponent for Hamed.

Evatt is full of confidence. He says: