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| In the sun-baked city of Phoenix, Arizona tomorrow night, IBF interim junior welterweight titlist Sharmba Mitchell finally gets a change to avenge the bitter loss he suffered at the hands of IBF Champion Kostya Tszyu almost four years ago. The two will meet in the cavernous 17,000 seat Glendale Arena to decide who can legitimately lay claim to be the top 140-pound fighter in the world. The entire fraternity |  Click for larger image © Tom Casino |
of boxing, from fighters, managers and TV executives to promoters, trainers and fans have all waited with great anticipation for this very moment.
Sharmba Mitchell, 55-3 (30), feels that he is the junior lightweight in the world but has had to wait since February of 2001 for the opportunity to prove that claim. That’s the date on which the then WBC titlist Kostya Tszyu posted a seventh round stoppage victory over Mitchell and took the Washington DC native’s WBA title belt. The fight itself was a rough affair with Mitchell going into the contest with a bad knee that became an injured knee as the match wore on. Tszyu applied unrelenting pressure, often throwing Mitchell to the floor. While Tszyu did have a point deducted for such behavior, Mitchell’s injury worsened to the point where he could not come out for the eighth round. “I don’t read anything into the first fight between Sharmba and Kostya,” said Gary Shaw, Mitchell’s promoter. “His knee injury was real and he wasn’t one hundred percent. He is one hundred percent for this fight however, so there’s no excuses. He’s going to go in and do his best and I think he’ll show everyone what the new and improved Sharmba Mitchell looks like.”
Since the first Tszyu fight, Mitchell has been very active, posting eight victories, most notably over Ben Tackie, Lovemore N’dou, Vince Phillips and Mike Stewart. In contrast, Tszyu’s career initially went well afterward, filling out the remainder of 2001 with wins over Oktay Urkal and Zab Judah, (to unify the titles) but only fought once each in 2002 and 2003. This will be Tszyu’s first fight back in the ring since stopping cagey veteran Jesse James Leija in six on January 19th, 2003. Since that time, injuries suffered in training, first to Tszyu’s Achilles Heel and then the shoulder, pushed the scheduled rematch with Mitchell further back each time.
While many in the media expect the formidable Tszyu, 30-1 (24), to be reduced in effectiveness due to the lethal combination of inactivity, age (Tszyu is thirty-five, eleven months older than Mitchell) and injury, his opponent doesn’t agree. “I’m expecting the best possible Kostya Tszyu and I’m expecting a tough fight,” enthused Mitchell. “He’s a lot like I am, because he just does not want to lose. Neither one of us really fears that much and we both want to win. Whatever that takes, that’s what he’s going to do to win. That’s how I am, too. I know that he’s going to come to fight and I’m not looking for a cakewalk or anything like that. I’m going to have to pull out skills that people probably haven’t seen before from me but that’s what I like. I want fights that bring out the best in me.”
Mitchell, a highly skilled southpaw with long experience, is arguably the most difficult fighter in the deep junior welter division. At thirty-four years of age, the former WBA champion is still a master at the game of hit and not be hit, something that he hopes to make abundantly clear to Tszyu on Saturday night. “I think that my boxing technique and my speed are going to make the difference,” said Mitchell. “Having the speed that I do and being as slick as I am, I don’t want to move that much because it takes a whole lot of energy to do a whole bunch of movement. My focus will be on the ability to get away from punches and make him miss a lot. When I can do that and can counterpunch and get my shots off, that’s beautiful!”
As the man who has guided Mitchell back to the top following Sharmba’s loss to Tszyu in 2001, Gary Shaw is expert in matters of both the sport and the business of boxing. The promoter knows full well the difficult assignment that lays ahead for his fighter. “I’m expecting a prime Kostya Tszyu,” he said. “He had injuries, but he wasn’t beaten up during his inactivity. Tszyu has got all kinds of talent and all kinds of power, plus he’s the consummate professional. I think there are some fighters like Kostya Tszyu and Evander Holyfield that are warriors and you can never count them out.”
“I’m very confident and excited for Sharmba; this is the opportunity that he’s been waiting years for. I think that Sharmba’s speed will do the trick in this fight, whereas I think Tszyu will plod around and if Sharmba doesn’t stand in front of him, it’ll negate Kostya’s power. I have no doubt that Sharmba is the best in the division and after this we’ll be looking for fights with any of the top 140-pound fighters, such as Gatti, Mayweather or Cotto.”
Sharmba Mitchell’s hopes and dreams largely rest upon the outcome of tomorrow’s contest with Kostya Tszyu and the thirty-four year old Washingtonian hopes to lay the ghosts of the past to rest as well. “I just can’t wait for this to happen and I keep counting down the days like I’m in jail or something,” chuckled a clearly buoyant Mitchell. “I want to show everyone that I’m the best in the division and I want to show Kostya that he just can’t beat me. That’s really all the motivation I need but now I hear that he’s been talking a lot of trash and that just motivates me even more!”
“I’m very ready for this fight and my training camp wasn’t easy at all. I had Stevie Forbes, Shane Mosley and a couple of other guys in camp with me, so I had a great preparation and I can’t complain at all. It wasn’t a cakewalk and actually it was probably the hardest training camp I’ve ever been in; I just wanted to get out of it (laughs)!”
“I think that this fight is not actually going to go how a lot of people are saying it will go. I’m going to make a lot of changes and have a lot of different movements and things like that. I think that I’ll surprise a lot of people and I might even surprise myself (laughs)! I would love to be able to knock Kostya out but I’m just looking to win the fight. I never go into fights to knock anyone out, I go into fights to simply win and that’s my motivation in boxing, to become the winner in the end. I haven’t even thought of anything ahead of this fight because this has been what I’ve wanted and it’ll be what I need. I want all my fans to know to keep rooting for me because I’m going to do what I can do in order to become the undisputed champion of the world.”
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Curtis McCormick can be reached at thomaspointrd@aol.com
