Raith’s Joe Cardle is looking to land a knockout blow on the pitch against Falkirk before dashing off to see his boxer brother hopefully do the same in the ring.
Scott Cardle, who is just back from a training camp at the Wildcard gym in Los Angeles, is fighting on the Ricky Burns undercard in front of more than 10,000 fans at Glasgow’s SECC.
The lightweight has won his first 13 fights since turning professional, but faces his stiffest contest yet against the experienced Paul Appleby.
However, Joe has detected an arrogance about Appleby who has already talked about who he would prefer to fight after he has beaten Scott.
The Raith player is hoping Appleby will be made to eat his words by his brother, and that this weekend will turn out to be a good one all round for “Team Cardle”.
If that is to happen, Rovers need to get back to winning ways with their last league victory coming away back on December 14 against Dumbarton.
The Kirkcaldy side, which drew 1-1 with Alloa midweek, are sitting in eighth place in the Championship table just four points above Fife rivals Cowdenbeath who pulled off a stunning win against table-topping Dundee last week in the relegation play-off spot.
However, Cardle believes Raith are still capable of climbing the table and securing a promotion play-off place.
He said: “I felt we should have taken all three points from the game against Alloa in midweek.
“We were on top for most of the match but conceded a silly goal. The positives were that we created a good few chances and one point is still obviously better than none.
“Cowdenbeath won last week, but we can’t afford to think about them and be negative. We started the season well and a couple of wins now would take us back into play-off contention.
“However, we know we face a really tough game against a Falkirk side who are very much in the promotion race.
“Despite that, we believe that one good result can kick us on for the rest of the season.
“We have the big cup game next week against St Johnstone, but that has not been a distraction.
“We are just taking it one game at a time, but with fixtures running out each one has to be treated like a cup final.
He added: “After the Falkirk game, I will be rushing through to Glasgow to see my brother fight Paul Appleby.
“Of course, Ricky Burns is also fighting and it should be a great televised night of boxing.
“This will probably be Scotty’s most difficult bout to date as Appleby is a tough, experienced fighter.
“I was surprised though to see his comments and I told Scotty to get right under his skin at the weigh-in. I think Scott is really up for it and I’m sure he will be 14-0 by the end.
“Hopefully it will be a great weekend all round for ‘Team Cardle’.”