DECEMBER 10, 2004
“RETIRE MAKER” TRAIN ROLLS ON!

Vitali Klitschko is referring to himself as the “Retire Maker,” he feels he is responsible for sending Lennox Lewis into retirement after their brutal fight for Lennox’s heavyweight title. After knocking out WBO Champion Herbie Hide in the second round of their title fight, Vitali has said that he is the reason no one ever heard of Herbie Hide again. Corrie Sanders announced his retirement after his losing fight against the big Ukrainian. Corrie remained retired until just recently when he signed for a comeback fight. Vitali does make a valid point although retiring Mike Tyson conqueror Danny Williams may be an entirely different story.

Vitali defends his WBC Heavyweight Championship against Danny Williams this Saturday night, December 11th at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. It will be the first defense of the Lennox Lewis-vacated title he won by beating Sanders. The fight card also features WBO Jr. Welterweight Champion Miguel Cotto making the first defense of his title against hard punching former champion Randall Bailey. FECARBOX champion Carlos Navarro will meet former world champion Agapito Sanchez for the vacant WBO Continental American 130-pound title. Opening the show will be former IBF Jr. Lightweight champion Carlos “Famoso” Hernandez who will be engaging in his first fight since losing his crown to Erik “El Terrible” Morales. Famoso will be fighting former NABF champion Juan Carlos “Ranchero”Ramariz in a ten round bout. The card will be shown on HBO PPV.

It’s hard to assess just how good Danny Williams really is. In the Tyson fight, he came very close to getting knocked out on several occasions. If Mike “A Beautiful Mind” Tyson had not trained for a short fight, he might have stopped Williams. It was very clear to me after watching the fight a couple of times that Mike tired badly in the last round of the bout. I am not buying the knee injury, I believe he hurt it, but the way I saw him move on it, it had nothing to do with the stoppage. Iron Mike could have gotten up, but what for? He was physically spent. I have always said that if a credible fighter showed no fear of Mike and fought him back, they had a chance to beat him. That’s the reason I picked Evander Holyfield in their first fight on November 8, 1981, a fight that never came off because Mike went to the bucket. It was the same reason I picked Evander in the two fights they did have. I knew Evander would stand up to him and fight Mike the same way Buster Douglas and Lennox Lewis did. Mike was stopped in all four fights.

I’m not taking anything away from Danny Williams; he showed incredible determination and a huge heart. He took the best Tyson threw at him and hung in long enough to beat him down. In Vitali Klitschko, Danny will face a giant heavyweight champion who stands 6’7, is a huge right hand puncher and will be in the best shape he can possibly be in. Danny at 6’1 will be punching up and will have to get inside Vitali’s reach in order to do any damage. It’s true that Vitali is a mechanical type of a fighter who probes with his solid, hard left jab in order to unleash his bomb-like right hand, once he has a fighter hurt, Vitali is a great finisher. A while back, going into the Sharmba Mitchell fight, I wrote that Kostya Tzsyu was a small Vitali Klitschko, now I say that Vitali is a big Kostya Tzsyu. They both are quintessential seek and destroy fighters who carry TNT in their right hands.

I do not think that Danny Williams carries the fire power that Lennox Lewis did, Vitali took the best of the bombs Lennox threw and landed on him, Danny may be under the misconception that Vitali also has a stamina problem, he recently launched a vicious verbal attack on the champion saying: “He does not like it when things get tough. His heart is definitely a weakness and it’s up to me to expose it once again.” Don’t count on it Danny. Williams was making reference to the time Vitali quit due to an injured left shoulder, suffering a TKO in the ninth round against Chris Byrd while Vitali was well ahead on points. He went on to say: “Klitschko only half-injured his shoulder near the end against Byrd, he just pulled out and said he would live to fight another day, those are not the words of a true warrior.”

I commend Vitali for putting a stop to a fight that saw him win nearly every round, Vitali, who goes my the nickname “Dr. Iron Fist,” is the first heavyweight champion to hold a Ph.D. when he won the WBO title from Hide, he showed intelligence by refusing to further damage a shoulder that could conceivably end his career. He underwent surgery to repair the injured shoulder.

Some called Vitali a quitter after that fight, those doubters were proved wrong after Vitali stood toe to toe with Lennox Lewis, a heavyweight champion I truly believe was the best heavyweight of his generation. Vitali led on all scorecards 58-56 when the fight was stopped at the end of the sixth round due to the severe cuts Vitali had suffered. He gave Lennox a fight I do not believe Lewis was prepared for; Vitali averaged 72 punches per round and 40 jabs per round. Pretty good, when you consider that the heavyweight average is 46 punches and 19 jabs per round. A 5-1 underdog vs. Lewis, Vitali landed 155 punches in six rounds, he was on pace to land over 300 punches when the fight was stopped. Also worth noting, the 430-punch output thrown by Vitali in the six rounds of their fight were the most thrown by a Lennox Lewis opponent. The Guinness Book of Records on November 11, 1999, added Klitschko for becoming the fastest heavyweight to win 26 fights by KO in the least amount of rounds…60. Twenty-five of Vitali’s KO’s have come inside of three rounds.

In his last fight, Vitali stopped Larry Donald in the tenth round, the first time Larry has been KO’d. If he had enough left to KO Donald in the tenth round and went six extremely hard fought rounds with Lewis, combined with a serious punch output, I really believe Danny shouldn’t bank on Vitali tiring in their fight.

Before Tyson, Williams was KO’d in the sixth round by someone by the name of Sinan Damilsam in February of 2003, he was badly hurt in round two and was dropped in the fourth round before the fight was called in the sixth. Household name Michael Sprott also decisioned Danny eleven months ago after Williams had KO’d Sprott twice in 2002 and 2003. In 2001, Corrie Sanders destroyed Sprott in one round. Emmanuel Stewart who once employed Williams as a sparring partner for Lennox Lewis was quoted recently, this is what he had to say: “Since the Tyson KO, Danny is a new man. He’s on the big stage in his first title fight. We’ll see. Vitali can throw punches in bunches when necessary and he may choose to test William’s mettle early. Should Williams survive the early rounds, look for a Klitschko late round stoppage, as his jab becomes the difference.”

Herbie Hide, a Klitschko KO victim who has sparred countless rounds with Danny Williams, has picked Vitali to KO Williams. As Herbie put it, “Danny got lucky with Tyson, he would have to get lucky again to beat Vitali Klitschko. Lennox Lewis, who knows both fighters extremely well, is picking Vitali to beat his countryman Danny Williams. He had this to say: “Just looking at the fight and the statistics, I realize that Klitschko has a big advantage.” I have to agree with Emmanuel, Herbie and Lennox; I’m picking the 3-1 favorite Klitschko to stop Danny inside six rounds. If Lennox Lewis, who hits very, very hard couldn’t stop Vitali in their hard fought fight, what chance does Danny Williams have to stop Vitali Klitschko when neither Lennox or lethal punching Corrie Sanders couldn’t get it done.

Although Danny Williams has always been a heavy fighter, going in at 265 pounds against Iron Mike, he didn’t do himself any favors coming in at 270 pounds in today’s weigh-in. At 6’1, I would have liked to see Williams come in around 255/260 pounds in order to give himself better mobility. The bigger the target, the better it will be for Vitali to zero in. Klitschko equaled his career high when he weighed in at 250 pounds. By weighing in at a huge 270 pounds, Danny equaled the highest weight ever recorded in a heavyweight title fight. In 1934, “The Ambling Alp” Primo Carnera, standing at 6’6, weighed in at 270 pounds for his fight with Tommy Loughran.

In the semi main event, Miguel Cotto, heir apparent to Felix Trinidad as Puerto Rico’s favorite fighter, will make the first defense of his WBO Jr. Welterweight crown when he opposes heavy-handed, former champion Randall Bailey. This should be a bombs away kind of fight. Cotto isn’t going into the fight over confident; he knows Bailey is a hard-hitting, dangerous opponent. He is fully aware that of Randall’s 28 wins, 27 have come via KO. Even so, Miguel Cotto has the making of becoming a huge superstar. He will out think, out box and beat Bailey at his own game. I look for Cotto to stop Randall, he will continue to get better and better, Randall Bailey is as good as he will ever be.

FECARBOX 130 pound champion Carlos Navarro, brother of WBC #1 Super Flyweight contender Jose Navarro, will be facing former world champion Agapito Sanchez. This figures to be a very competitive fight, Sanchez has the experience edge with a record of 35-9-2 w/ 18 KO’s while Navarro has a respectable resume of 23-3-1 w/13 KO’s. I really do not know what Agapito has left after engaging in quite a few wars that total 46 fights; Carlos will have to overcome the experience factor if he is to win.

Opening the telecast will be “Ringside LA With Johnny Ortiz” favorite Carlos “Famoso” Hernandez, he will be exchanging punches with Mexican veteran Juan Carlos “Ranchero” Ramirez in what looks like an exciting matchup set for ten rounds. I look for Famoso to make a big statement since his thrilling fight with Erik Morales. Famoso is a champion without a belt; he will beat Ranchero with his non-stop aggressive style. I look for Carlos to be fighting for a title in the coming new year. Carlos Hernandez waited a long time to become a world champion, he will be a champion again…crème floats!

This is an outstanding fight card, be sure to watch it!

UNTIL THE NEXT ROUND…PEACE AND GOD BLESS!