COMEBACK kid Steve Spartacus is ready to return to the boxing ring - and fully prepared to get back to winning ways.Ipswich fighter Spartacus, real name Steve Smith, faces Varuzhan Davtyan in a light-heavyweight fight next Wednesday, four months after suffering his only professional defeat in 16 fights.

COMEBACK kid Steve Spartacus is ready to return to the boxing ring - and fully prepared to get back to winning ways.

Ipswich fighter Spartacus, real name Steve Smith, faces Varuzhan Davtyan in a light-heavyweight fight next Wednesday, four months after suffering his only professional defeat in 16 fights.

But the 27-year old boxer admits he was unprepared for that ill-fated bout with Ovill McKenzie which came just a month after he had won the inaugural English light-heavyweight crown with victory over Scott Lansdowne at Bethnal Green

He said: “It was all going so well for me - I'd won the English title and I came back in to the gym after Christmas and was told there would be no fight for me until April.

“Then, at short notice, the fight came up with McKenzie and I went for it. I wasn't fit enough but I believed my own hype and believed I could beat him. I was a fool to think I could as you need six weeks preparation before a fight and I didn't get it.”

Since the McKenzie defeat, Spartacus has spent time sparring overseas in a bid to get back to the condition he was in last December when he took the light-heavyweight crown in a third round knockout.

“I've been dogged by injuries recently and have been over in Denmark sparring - the injury is to my left elbow which has been a bit of a nightmare. But I'm having plenty of physio on it and it's getting better.

“I'm still not 100 per cent fit now but I am better prepared than for the McKenzie fight.”

In Nottingham next Wednesday he faces Armenian Davtyan, a former Russian middleweight champion with an impressive record of 27 wins and five defeats in his native country.

Davtyan, 31, relocated to Birmingham in 2002 and has won five and lost ten fights since then. Spartacus admits it is a fight he really should win.

“Davtyan is a boxer I know a bit about. His last fight was at the end of March when he beat Jamie Hearn in Southampton but ten days before that he fought my gym mate Andrew Lowe.

“Andrew won that fight so I've been speaking to him about Davtyan and he will lend me the video of the fight to watch.

“Davtyan is a hard-working fighter but when he fought Andrew he was fat and out of shape - he likes to move around the ring which is something I don't really like - I would rather just get in there and tear him up.”

After fighting Davtyan on Wednesday, Spartacus is all set to face 25-year-old Londoner Peter Haymer in a long-awaited grudge match.

Spartacus faced Haymer when the two boxers were amateurs and lost the fight on a controversial points decision.

“We met in 2000 when I was still an amateur and he beat me 16-15 on points and we've been on a collision course to meet as pros ever since.

“Even now in gyms around London people come up to me and talk about the Haymer fight and still tell me I should have been given the points decision.

“That is the big fight I am waiting for but it won't take place until September.

“After that I am hoping to bring a fight back to Ipswich. That would really be something special.”