GAIRY St Clair was down on his luck. Broke and disillusioned with boxing and with no fights on the horizon, he wasn't sure which way to turn.

Then he heard through an American agent that Kostya Tszyu was looking for a sparring partner. The world champion needed a southpaw and St Clair was an orthodox fighter but the man from the Caribbean nation of Guyana was desperate.

For six weeks St Clair trained every day with Tszyu giving him the sparring he needed. Then, a couple of days before Tszyu's successful super lightweight unification fight against Sharmba Mitchell, he sheepishly confessed the truth to trainer Johnny Lewis.

The most successful trainer in Australian boxing history, a man who knows the sport inside out, could not believe he'd been conned.

''I'd been impressed with Gairy's efforts as a southpaw he looked a very good fighter and gave Kostya some good workouts," Lewis recalled. "He'd fooled me. I was amazed that he wasn't a southpaw and intrigued to see how good he was as an orthodox fighter.

"He was even better and I knew straight away that he had the tools to fight at a higher level than he is at the moment."

The man who guided Jeff Fenech, Jeff Harding and Kostya Tszyu to world titles believes St Clair can become his fourth world champion.

"Things weren't good for me," St Clair remembers. "I had financial problems, family problems and I couldn't find work. A lot of fighters from Guyana are switch hitters and I needed to make some money. I had no choice.''

St Clair returned to Sydney to help Tszyu prepare for his successful unification fight against Zab Judah and has been fighting on undercards from Bankstown to Edensor Park as he builds his reputation all over again.

St Clair has fought five times in Australia for five wins, but remains unknown to all but hard core Australian fight fans despite having fought some of the best in the business in the United States.

Lewis believes his latest star can win a world title by the end of the year and has zeroed in on unbeaten Brazilian knockout artist Acelino Freitas, who holds both the WBA and WBO junior lightweight titles, as the target.

St Clair, who has just turned 27, has 22 wins, three losses and one draw on his record. His only defeats have been against world class fighters: current WBA lightweight champion Leonard Dorin, former IBF super featherweight Diego Corrales and Vivian Harris, a fully fledged junior welterweight. He's never been stopped and never hit the deck.

One of nine children from a poor family, he turned pro after there wasn't enough money to send him to the Barcelona Olympic Games even though he had compiled a 50 4 amateur record and was a junior Pan American Games gold medallist.

"I cried and cried," he recalls. "It is every kid's dream to win Olympic gold and I had my chance taken away from me."

After turning pro in 1994 at the age of 19, St Clair built up a good record in Guyana and the United States but eventually found himself at the mercy of managers who insisted he took fights at short notice, and that he put on weight to fight out of his division.

"He was badly handled and used up in the US," Lewis said. "He was thrown into fights that he had no business being in. He's a nice kid who deserved a break."

St Clair was well on his way to becoming "an opponent" before he got the call from Australia.

Lewis quickly forgave St Clair for pulling the wool over his eyes and helped rebuild his confidence. There is a close bond between the pair.

''He's got a lot of skills, a lot of speed and elusiveness,'' Lewis said. "Back home he was disillusioned, and he couldn't fight in the United States because of visa problems.

"At 27 he knows he's got to make it happen soon and he's going about it the right way."

St Clair is grateful for a second chance in a sport where they are rare.

''I'd never heard of Johnny Lewis and didn't know anything about him, but I'd been badly messed about so I didn't hesitate when I got the chance to work with him again,'' St Clair said.

''Johnny is honest and straight one of the nicest guys I ever came across,'' he said. ''I know I can trust him and that isn't always the case in boxing.''

St Clair has rapidly settled into a routine in Australia.

''Boxing is my business,'' he said. "I've got bills to pay and it has been good for me in Australia. I've been training all the time, fighting all the time and that makes me sharper. Even if some of the opponents haven't been so good. They've been more like spars."'

Only one fighter from Guyana, current WBA welterweight champion Andrew "Six Heads" Lewis, has ever won a world title. St Clair aims to make it two but from Australia.

''First I need to get my world ranking back, but I'm hoping I get a shot before the end of the year,'' he said. "Freitas can punch, but I have the style to confuse and bemuse him.''

St Clair and his fiancee Shenonda have settled in Redfern, a piece of cake after he lived in the mean streets of Brooklyn while based in the States and he is hoping his sports visa can be changed to enable him to live here long term.

''The lifestyle in Australia is great,'' he said. ''It's a lot slower than New York but the people here are really nice. They have time to talk to you and no attitude.''