MONTREAL — Custio Clayton won't wait long for his shot at a pair of minor boxing titles.
Clayton (11-0-0) is to face Johnny Navarrete (33-9-1) of Mexico on Thursday night at the Montreal Casino for the WBC Continental Americas and IBF International welterweight belts.
The Montreal-based fighter from Dartmouth, N.S. was to have fought for the titles two weeks ago at the Bell Centre, but the bout was cancelled when his intended opponent Oscar Cortez failed to make the 147-pound limit by more than 20 pounds.
Clayton, 29, has been waiting for his shot at a continental title, which would vault him in the top 15 in rankings of the WBC and IBF and put him in line for a world title fight.
The 2012 Canadian Olympian has gone the distance in only two of his 11 pro fights. In his last outing he stopped Alfredo Chavez on April 15 in Cornwall, Ont.
He will be the favourite against Navarrete, who has lost three of his last seven bouts and is coming off a defeat to Jaime Munguia on April 29 in Mexico. Navarrete is 0-3 in Canada, having lost in 2010 to Kevin Bizier of Quebec City, Manolis Plaitis of Montreal and Samuel Vargas of Toronto.
The co-feature has super-middleweight Shakeel Phinn (13-1) of Brossard, Que., against Pablo Nievas (33-14) of Mexico.
The Canadian Press
