York's Henry Wharton today hooked up with the rest of the English strike team aimed at spanking the Yanks.

Wharton jetted into New York, travelling on to the gambling resort of Atlantic City for the final five days of preparation before his American baptism in his debut as a light-heavyweight.

Wharton, who is attempting to reconstruct his career after three unsuccessful shots at the world super-middleweight crown, begins the comeback trail at the Convention Centre against Franklin Charles Edmundson.

The contest opens the American second half of a major league night of boxing, starting with two world title bouts at Hull's Ice Arena on Saturday before veering across to Atlantic City in the early hours of Sunday to climax in Lennox Lewis' defence of his World Boxing Council heavyweight championship against Shannon Briggs.

Between Wharton's debut and Lewis' defence, Sheffield's Herol 'Bomber' Graham will also challenge Charles 'The Hatchet' Brewer for his International Boxing Federation super-middleweight crown.

The trio of Wharton, Graham and Lewis represent the English 'strike team', meeting for the first time today in the gymnasium in Atlantic City as the count to their triple grand slam ticks down.

While York's Wharton realised that the main media focus would be on world champion Lewis, he was determined to grasp the opportunity of being linked to such a high-profile fight-night.

Declared Wharton: "It's a new start, an exciting new challenge and I aim to make the most of it. It's given me that buzz again.

"I know the main attention will be on Lennox Lewis, but I will be able to show my stuff there in front of them all. I want to show the Americans what I can do, especially at this new weight."

The 30-year-old said he is in his most comfortable shape for several years, ever since the demands of trimming himself down to the 12stone super-middleweight division began to take their toll.

He said: "I feel I have strength there in my arms and my legs again. I never ever thought I would fight at light-heavyweight because I was convinced I would become world champion at super-middle.

"But now I am here and the only thing I have yet to achieve is that world title. If I'm going to get towards that then I am going to have to 'fight the fight' as they say here."

In his new start Wharton has been paired with sparring partners much bigger than himself. The rest of this week is to be employed on short, sharp explosive work to keep him honed for his first turn to the ring in ten months since his last crack at Robin Reid's world super-middleweight belt ended, as did his other two attempts, in a 12-round points defeat.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.