Michael Alldis would love to be talked about in the same way as another great Crawley champion, Alan Minter.

The 31-year-old admits he will never come close to matching the achievements of the great Minter, but he is hoping to leave a belated mark on boxing.

Alldis makes a start by defending his British super-bantamweight crown in Glasgow tonight against home fighter Shaun Anderson.

It is a fight he is expected to win, but a partisan crowd of 750 Scotsmen at the St Andrew's Sporting Club will ensure Alldis is in for no easy ride.

To say this is make or break for Alldis, might be stretching a point. But Alldis knows victory can help him on the way to achieving his goals, while defeat in his first defence of the title would leave him contemplating his future.

Since winning the British title in glorious fashion at Bethnal Green in November, producing a storming display to beat the much-fancied Patrick Mullings on points, Alldis has had little time to relax.

"At first I was ecstatic, but after three weeks it was back in the gym, putting my head down and training for this fight.

"I only had three weeks where I could lap it up, the rest of the time has been hard work.

"There was no Christmas for me. I had half a glass of red wine on Christmas Day and two sips of champagne on New Year's Eve, and that was it."

But Alldis is not bemoaning his fortune. Far from it. Winning the title last November has made him even hungrier for success.

'What I want to do is win the Lonsdale belt outright. I would like to have three fights early this year, starting with this one.

"Obviously, the Lonsdale belt is the main goal, but it accumulates money as well. I would like to pay my house off and one day I can look back and say I have got something out of boxing.

Stablise

"Now I have a chance to stabilise my family and that is important. But also important is being recognised as one of the best fighters of this decade, where people don't just pass you be in conversation, saying "Oh yeah, Michael Alldis was British champion at one stage'.

"I want to win the European title and fight for a world title."

Shaun Anderson comes with a reasonable pedigree, but he is really a bantamweight stepping up a division and that should give Alldis the edge.

Thirty-year-old Anderson has twice fought for the Scottish bantamweight title, winning it the second time, but his biggest moment came last January when he lost to Francis Ampofo when fighting for the vacant IBO inter-continental title.

Alldis will pay Anderson his due respect, but he is confident of victory and is already thinking about bigger fish.

Michael Brodie and Drew Docherty are two names being mentioned. Alldis said: "Michael Brodie is managed by Barry Hearn as well and Barry does not want us to fight each other. He wants to move Brodie on for a world title fight, because he is knocking on the door now, so when he does he will vacate his European title and I will be the No. 1 challenger.

"I would take over his European title and then Barry would pair us off, I would imagine.

"Drew Docherty is a finished article. If he really wants to fight me, he will take the same beating as Brodie gave him. I could fight him quite easily and I would fight him for nothing as well, but let's keep it for the Lonsdale belt."

Alldis is normally roared on by a big following from Crawley, but he will have just six of his friends and family in the hall with him tonight.

However, he is determined to do his home town proud and he hopes it will be another step towards starting to match the achievements of Minter, who became undisputed world middleweight champion in the Seventies.

Alldis said: "Alan Minter achieved the impossible. What he did could be achieved today, but it would be very hard, as you know with the Lennox Lewis business.

"Alan achieved something which was unique. He started the ball rolling down here and I am just glad to follow in his footsteps.

"To be undisputed world champion was a great honour for him and a great honour for Crawley. If I can achieve just some of what he has done and be on the same par as him, it would be great.

"If people said, 'Well, Crawley had Alan Minter and Michael Alldis', that would be great."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.