'World War Three' beckons for North Yorkshire's world boxing champion Paul Ingle.

The Yorkshire Hunter, the new International Boxing Federation featherweight champion, is being lined up for a capital date on the undercard to Prince Naseem Hamed's next title fight.

Ingle is expected to defend his crown for the first time against America's former world champion Kevin Kelley.

Speaking to the Evening Press, boxing king maker Frank Maloney, manager of the Scarborough ace, admitted he is currently in negotiations with American television to secure the services of New Yorker Kelley.

The bout is being lined up as chief support for Hamed's World Boxing Organisation featherweight defence against Junior Jones at London's Olympia on March 11.

Former World Boxing Council champ Kelley would offer Ingle a stern test for a first defence and sparks would surely fly.

Kelley was Hamed's first opponent on American soil in December 1997 when, fighting in his home turf at the boxing Mecca of the world, Madison Square Garden, he floored the Sheffield superstar three times in four brutal rounds before eventually succumbing to one of the Yorkshire fighter's hammer hard blows.

Ingle, who lost to Hamed in a bruising 11-round epic in April last year, won his world crown in another bloody war in November.

He scored a thrilling unanimous points victory over Mexico's Manual Medina at the Hull Ice Arena after climbing off the canvas in the final round to claim his crown.

Crucially, after Ingle's defeat to Hamed last year, Lou Di Bella, senior vice-president of Home Box Office, the American TV network who are tied to screening Hamed's fights, said an Ingle v Kelley scrap would be a fight to savour.

As reported in the Evening Press, Di Bella said: "There are a lot of good match-ups out there for him (Ingle).

"I think he's a real world class fighter. If he fought someone like Kevin Kelley it would be World War Three."

Should the Ingle v Kelley fight fail to materialise Maloney refused to rule out the possibility of Ingle making his first defence in America, on the undercard of the proposed world heavyweight title showdown between Lennox Lewis and Michael Grant.

That fight between Britain's undisputed champion and American Grant is expected to take place on April 29, probably at Madison Square Garden.

"Never say never in boxing," said Maloney. "But the Kelley fight is the one we are really aiming for."

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