By Scott Shaffer

Former IBF bantamweight champion Tim Austin returns to a Cleveland boxing ring tonight, two and a half years after Rafael Marquez ended his championship run by eighth-round technical knockout. On the off-television portion of Don King's show, Austin, 25-1, will face Reynaldo Hurtado, 36-7-1. Austin, expected to campaign as a junior featherweight, weighed in at 124.5 pounds. He captured the IBF 118-pound title in 1997 and defended it nine times, mostly against nondescript challengers.  He finally got two big wins, against Adan Vargas and current WBO titlist Ratanachai Sor Vorapin, but then suffered the only loss of his career to Marquez and hasn't fought since February 2003.