Third time lucky for hungry Amar

Adnan Amar can finally put a host of disappointments behind him at the weekend.

The English welterweight champion hasn't seen competitive action for 21 months and his long-awaited return has twice been penciled in for the last four weeks - June 25, Sheffield, and last weekend in Wembley - only to see the bouts fall through hours before.

But the avoided Nottingham puncher finally gets a fight on Saturday (July 30), on a Stephen Vaughan-promoted show at the Greenbank Sports Centre in Liverpool, and that will spell the end of a near-two-year exile in which men he was ahead of in the domestic rankings have raced ahead.

Ambitious Amar holds top-quality wins over Canadian Ian MacKillop and Mark Lloyd but has been forced to watch from the sidelines as Matthew Hatton, who he was once set to fight, secured a WBC world title shot and the likes of Craig Watson and Lee Purdy take ownership of the British title

The last time he was seen in a professional ring Adnan was taking apart then-streaking Tom Glover, who'd just outpointed former European champion Jon Thaxton, in five one-sided rounds in October 2009, on the undercard of Carl Froch's WBC title defence against Andre Direll at the Nottingham (now CapitalFM) Arena.

That was the second defence of an English 10st 7lbs belt he won against the aforementioned Lloyd, who was unbeaten entering, and hopes to defend again before the year reaches its zenith - with an interesting-looking ten-rounder with smooth-boxing ex-British and European light-welterweight monarch Colin Lynes in the offing.

And this weekend's 12-minute return, against Mansfield's sturdy former Midland Area boss Matt Scriven, should prove to be a decent rust-shredding exercise for fast-handed Amar, 28, who will swap leather with a veteran scrapper who has mainly competed at middleweight and engaging in his 97th outing in the paid ranks.

"The last few months have been frustrating," conceded a tall, capable, long-armed stylist, 23-1 (7), who trains at the Ingles famed Wincobank gym and who's been putting serious venom into his cultured punching in his most recent outings," as i have seen fights fall through on the day or day before i'm due to fight.

"But it's third time lucky for me, even if it's all the way in Liverpool, and i can't wait to get back to work," he added.