| |
|
|
|
Ringside LA
With Johnny Ortiz
December 8, 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 Tszyu was a small Vitali Klitschko, now I say that
Vitali is a big Kostya Tszyu. 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!
|
|
|
