World champ Katsidis a lightweight in name only

MICHAEL Katsidis has become the first Australian lightweight world boxing champion after a punishing five-round win over Briton Graham Earl at Wembley Arena on Saturday night.
In an action-packed affair in which both fighters were downed and the towel thrown in — and quickly out — of the ring by Earl's corner, Katsidis took the WBO interim lightweight world title when his opponent retired after the fifth round.
Katsidis also became the first Australian to win a WBO title and the first Greek citizen to win a world boxing title of any kind.
"This is a dream come true, everything I've ever hoped for," Katsidis said. "I said I wasn't going to come home without becoming a world champion, and now I've done it. I left Australia to go and train in the cold in America and then come to England
"I've changed a lot, and now everyone can see that a guy from Toowoomba can win a world title and everyone knows they can change their life too. If I die tomorrow, I'll die a happy man."
Katsidis dominated the fight from the opening bell, dropping Earl twice late in a furious first round. There was no respite for Earl, who was put down again by a right cross early in the second.
It was then that Earl's corner threw the towel into the ring, signalling a retirement, but referee Micky Vann ordered that the fight continue.
Earl's corner would have been red-faced at their early concession when the hometown fighter rallied to put the Queenslander on his knees for a count in the third.
Katsidis continued to land telling punches in the fourth and fifth, and at the end of the round, Earl's corner decided he could take no more and did not answer the bell for the sixth.
Katsidis, a 2000 Olympian, can now look forward to some big-money bouts, having taken his professional record to 22-0 (20 by knockout) against Earl, who fell to 25-2 (12 KO).