Ben Jones is throwing his weight behind a bid for Senior ABA Championship glory in Preston.

The Crawley Amateur Boxing Club lightweight (under-60kg) will meet either Frankie Gavin (Hall Green, Birmingham), Stephen Jennings (Tower Hill, London) or Steve Turner (The Army) in the semi-finals tomorrow.

Jones, 22, is not the favourite for the prestigious title but believes that assumptions made on his chances have failed to take into consideration one key factor - many of his contests on open shows have been fought against significantly heavier boxers.

The Southern Counties champion said: "The good thing for me is that I will be boxing at my weight in the ABAs.

"Often I box and give away three or four kilos to my opponents, which is a lot. I am fighting people who are a weight above me on shows but that was the idea.

"When I come back to my own weight I find it easier. If you read Boxing News they are judging me on fights against heavier boxers who are in the under-64kg division."

Gavin is the widely-tipped favourite for success having been rated third behind Athens silver medalist Amir Khan and Mark Hastie (Forgewood, Motherwell) in the Four Nations rankings produced by Boxing News in January based on results up until the seventh of that month.

However, Jones, a former Fulham youth footballer, is not worrying too much about what his possible opponents are capable of but is more concerned with his own performance following an emphatic quarter-final success over North East Counties champion Jamie Dyer a fortnight ago.

He said: "I had a flatout week of training last week and I have eased down now. I have been boxing well and I'm not worried about them. I shall just let them worry about me."

Crawley trainer George Brown is similarly reluctant to switch the focus to the opponents when he knows how good his own prospect is.

Brown admitted: "What's Ben got to lose? He's already in the last four in the country.

"They are all good now. Frankie Gavin has had 77 fights and won 60, boxed for England and will probably be picked for the Four Nations when they are chosen.

"I know a bit about Jennings too but I'm not really one of those coaches who goes right into the other boxers' records.

"It is up to us. My attitude is 'We're here, we're going to box so let's do it'. It's all about on the day and Ben is boxing well and I believe he can go all the way.

"I do my work in the gym and he does his work in the ring. It's a partnership and we shall just have to see what happens on the day."

Southpaw Gavin, 18, is the hot favourite and is a former sparring partner of Khan while Turner saw off the Western Counties champion Ben Murray in his quarter-final.

Jennings defeated John Cosgrove (Barton) in the North West Counties finals.

The Championships and build-up to the semi-finals at the Guild Hall have attracted more attention this year than in recent times because of the prospect of Khan being involved in the final.

However, Khan withdrew after a bust-up with the ABA over his ticket allocation for the quarter-finals last Saturday.

He subsequently confirmed that he will not stay under the amateur ranks until the next Olympics in Beijing in 2008.