POWERHOUSE Paul Souter, 22, finally faced his demons and took the step up to the international heavyweight bracket in Denmark.

A crusierweight for many a year, Loughton-based Souter always had to face a battle to lose weight for England call-ups owing to there being no crusierweight division at international level.

But he bit the bullet and took a step up a weight division, rather than drop down to a light heavyweight division as he had been doing previously.

The new international heavy-weight was worried that the weight he had to gain would mean a sluggish performance, but he was still sharp as he overcame Kim S Thomsen, winning on points, 20-18.

Souter said: "The step up to the new weight was playing on my mind and I was called into the squad at very short notice. I only had a week to train for it.

"But luckily enough I was already half-fit and I just stepped up the pace of my training leading up to the fight to get me prepared for it.

"Thomsen is a more natural heavyweight, he has had a lot of bouts at heavyweight and he looked pretty big and strong, but I won it easily.

"My bout was the last one of the show, and only one of our boys had lost and I think they were harder on me to try and even it up.

"Going into the last round we were drawing, so I stepped it up and out-boxed him to make the final score 4-2 to England.

"I'm not sure if I will be going to the next Multi-Nation games in Poland, I haven't been called up yet. It's a lot harder for me to work my way into the squad now as there are three heavyweights competing for places and I'm the new kid on the block.

"I've just got to keep training at the squad camps and try to get my place in the side."

Chingford's Michael Lomax, 23, was also in the England squad and he took on Mohammed Ali and overcame him in four rounds, winning 17-8 on computer scoring points.

Yet it nearly didn't happen as two weeks ago Lomax fought and beat the British number four, but injured his shoulder in the process.

Lomax said: "During the fight in Denmark, I felt a twinge and I know that if I hadn't felt that, I would have been able to stop him, but as it was, I had to relax and pace myself and win on points instead.

"But I had a good performance and I think I was physically stronger than him. I had just a bit more experience than he had."

November 2, 2001 15:07