The Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia will host a fight between Dmitry Bivol and Lyndon Arthur on Saturday, December 23.
In May 2002, Zennen Blackburn, Arthur’s elder brother and a father of two, was shot several times at close range in Manchester, England. Zennen was 27 years old at the time. The people who killed Zennen are still out there. That terrible moment has stuck with Arthur ever since.
“As you get older, you understand what sort of impact things had on you when you were younger and I understand now the trauma I went through,” said Arthur in media reports.
“It happened just down the road from home. [Zennen] was a boxer and Pat tells me he was good. I never saw him box because I was too young. I know he would be proud of what I’m doing, fighting for a world title,” he added.
Arthur(23-1, 16 KOs) is prepared to honor his late brother if he prevails over Bivol(21-0, 11 KOs) on Saturday in the WBA light heavyweight championship fight. It won’t be simple to overcome Bivol a 33-year old boxer from Soviet Union.
Arthur was at a breaking point seven years after the killing when his uncle Pat Barrett, a former welterweight world title contender, saw him in a distressed state when he was sitting on a curb near the scene of his brother’s shooting death. When Arthur was in his late teens, Barret took him to a boxing facility in Manchester, according to Arthur. He was introduced to Brian Hughes, an inspirational trainer.
Growing up in Moston, Manchester, three miles from the Etihad Stadium, home of English Premier League team Manchester City, Arthur, 32, had easy access to crime and street violence during his teenage years.
“I wasn’t doing the best of things outside of the sport when I first started boxing and it would’ve been easy for me to get into something I shouldn’t have. Boxing turned my whole life around. It gave me a sense of direction, some authority,” said Arthur.
“I would probably have gone down the wrong road if it wasn’t for boxing, and Brian was one of the ones that really helped me with my career,” he added.
