BoxRec

Forced into retirement 18 months ago by a misdiagnosed brain injury, Katsidis will make an emphatic return to the ring on December 11 when he faces Englishman Stephen Foster Jnr on the undercard of Garth Wood and Martin Murray at the Sydney Entertainment Centre.

With five separate neurologists having cleared him to continue fighting, the two-time world champion now wants to rectify a horror run of losses in the three years he’s spent grieving his brother, the champion jockey who died of a drug overdose.

“Anyone who knows me well, knows how close I was to Stathi,’’ Katsidis told The Daily Telegraph yesterday. “And for a long while, yeah, I struggled.

“There were times when I thought it was going to take 52 years until the grieving was finished. It’s been a long time, but it’s done.”

Among the toughest Australian fighters of the modern era, Katsidis is promising to reignite the lightweight division by challenging the superstar fighters he lost against during his grieving process -- most notably WBO world champion Ricky Burns and Mexican superstar Juan Manuel Marquez.

“I know there are people out there who might consider this a last hurrah for me,’’ Katsidis continues. “But it’s not.
“After Stathi died, I struggled for a long time. And then came the misdiagnosis of a brain injury right when I finally felt like my head was starting to clear.

“So this is really a new beginning. For me, the fight game has never been how hard you hit, but how hard you come back from being hit.”

Asked about Foster, the former European super-featherweight champion whose recent attempt to take the British crown from Gary Buckland failed, Katsidis continued: “I don’t know much about the bloke other that what I’ve seen . . . and that I can beat him.

“This is an important card for Australian boxing and an important one for me personally. It’s about a lot more than trying to beat someone up in my own backyard. This is my first fight in almost 18 months, my first step back towards goals I thought had been taken from me forever.

“So I really need to get out there and demolish this guy. I’m already feeling the pre-fight fight nerves which is great. It means I’m ready to get in there and destroy the bloke.”

bollox wrote:I wonder how many neurologists he went to altogether, to find the 5 that cleared him

It's all pretty f*ckin sad. It seems obvious the guy will end up a vegetable if he keeps going yet there are people close to him that don't have the guts to tell him that for his own benefit he should stay retired

bollox wrote:The fighter is the last person that should be left to make the decision whether to fight on or not after the potential for head injuries has become an issue. How many fighters today are walking around as human vegetables as a result of their careers? Way waay too many is the answer. They're too brave for ther own good