Croydon's Wayne Alexander is plotting his route back to the top after recovering from a broken ankle that has set him back four months.

The former WBU light-middleweight champion is targeting a warm-up fight in late April or early May.

Then the 34-year-old intends to get back among the belts by fighting the winner of Ryan Rhodes' scheduled British title clash with Gary Woolcombe on April 18.

Fourteen months out of the ring since defeat in a non-title fight with Serge Vigne cost him his WBU crown have not diminished Alexander's amb-ition to be world champion again.

"I feel I have a point to prove," he said.

"I had been a champion for four or five years but for the past 18 months I have felt naked without a belt.

"I feel that I have talked for too long about what I want to do, but now I feel fit and ready to do my talking in the ring.

Alexander, who has been combining hard work on the treadmill with training alongside former European champion James Cook, considers himself 90 per cent recovered from his latest setback.

He landed his WBU title in September 2004 with a round- two knockout of Mehrdud Takaloo and retained the crown with a points victory over Thomas McDonagh in March 2006.

But the WBU rulebook left him having to start again in December 2006 after he was stopped in the first round by Vigne.

"I have never lost a title in the ring," pointed out Alexander, who vacated his earlier British and European titles as he moved up the world boxing ladder.

"I was stripped of my title because WBU rules say you cannot lose a fight.

"None of the other bodies do that - it is just the WBU.

"But because I was undefeated champion, that makes me number one challenger.

"My ambition is to be world champion again, but I need to take each step at a time."