Guyanese World Boxing Council (WBC) Light Heavyweight CABOFE Title holder Shawn Corbin will face German Karo Murat on Saturday in Germany for his World Boxing Organisation (WBO) Inter-Continental title.
The 12-round contest will be the main support bout for the Sebastien Sylvester and Billy Lyell International Boxing Federation (IBF) middleweight world title fight at the Jahnsportforum Arena.
The Trinidad and Tobago-based Corbin has a ring record of 13 wins, with nine knockouts, against one defeat and will be facing easily his most difficult opponent since he lost an April 2007 clash with world-rated Panamanian Tito Mendoza in Panama City.
Highly rated Murat is 20-0 with 12 knockouts and holds a top five rating with three world governing bodies – No.3 by the World Boxing Council (WBC) and No.4 by both the World Boxing Association (WBA) and World Boxing Organisation (WBO).
Corbin, whose last bout was a seventh-round victory over Barbadian Curtis Murray at Central Indoor Regional Auditorium in Trinidad three weeks ago, has taken the fight at short notice but his manager Boxu Potts believes he is in good shape and should not be under-estimated.
“He is always in the gym and he is about 85 per cent ready right now,” Potts told CMC Sport.
The 34-year-old Corbin has sparred this week with regional (Fedelatin) super-middleweight champion Kirt Sinnette and in spite of inadequate gym facilities and Potts said that he is working to get the Guyanese him in his best possible condition for Saturday’s bout.
“The Hasely Crawford Gym closed down over five months ago and I have had to resort to some makeshift measures. Yesterday, he sparred eight rounds with Sinnette and he will work with a heavyweight today and again with Sinnette,” Potts said Tuesday morning.
“If he has the will and energy to take him through this fight, I don’t see the boy (Murat) beating him at all. Corbin is bigger, he is a natural light heavyweight (175 pounds) while Murat is a super-middleweight (168 pounds) coming up,” Potts said.
Corbin travels today for the bout and Potts believes the issue of jet lag will be his biggest hurdle.
“Jet lag is my major concern but I will take him off the plane and immediately give him a jog for about half an hour, then rest. This is one of the scientific ways I can use to combat jet lag,” Potts told CMC Sport.