It's a marathon and a (hill) sprint for Maughan

Don't be alarmed if you're from Nottingham and wake up to see a man sprinting up a hill - it's only Terry Maughan.

The ambitious light-middleweight boxes in his home city on June 18 - at the Britannia Hotel on Maid Marian Way - and is training harder-than-ever to turn away the argument of a gritty Londoner who will be engaging in his 70th professional battle.

That opponent, durable Duncan Cottier, has taken on no fewer than 43 undefeated prospects in a six-year career that has also seen him swap leather with the likes of former British monarch Kell Brook, ex-European boss Paul McCloskey and a brace of current and previous Commonwealth champions - Denton Vassell and Willie Limond.

Hammer-fisted Brook managed to halt him but, aside from that, only four others have and Sneinton-based Maughan, who lost his debut but has won four of his last five, is likely to have a tricky distance battle on his hands.

Though Terry's boxed 22 rounds as a pro and outpointed solid operators like Ryan Clark and West Brom southpaw Wayne Downing, Cottier has completed 292 more stanzas in higher company. This, coupled with the fact he's eager to have the engine to go ten and 12 rounds in future title attempts, convinced the three-time ex-British kick-boxing champion he needed to step up the intensity of his training.

The 26-year-old never boxed as an amateur but compiled a five-fight unbeaten tab as a unlicensed scrapper and said: "The training with Tony [Harris, trainer] has been, as usual, good and i feel sharp and ready. This time, tough, there has been an added element with the hill sprints.

"That said, i don't like them and who would?" laughed the Irish-rooted fighter. "I don't want be running up steep hills on top of my normal road work and training. But i'll do whatever it takes and it'll increase my stamina, which is vital for my future development as a fighter. 

"And though i don't know too much about Cottier, i'm looking forward to boxing in Nottingham again," said an East Midlander who boxes on a show promoted by a man - Mansfield's former Midland Area champion Matt Scriven - who beat him on his pro bow in 2009. "I won't have far to travel either as i can get from my house to the venue in about ten minutes.

"But all jokes aside, i've got massive ambitions and i need to keep them on track with a win," he added.