Boxing News Boxing News
On February 6, 2009 at the Wicomico Civic Center in Salisbury, Maryland, Yusaf Mack and Chris Henry will meet with the winner likely to go on and compete for one of the major titles.
Mack has already been in this position twice before, falling short against former IBF champion Alejandro Berrio and title contender Librado Andrade, and is aware that this could be the last chance to really make his mark.
Mack has turned things around since the loss to Andrade and has looked impressive in his last three fights with wins over Ernesto Zamora, Daniel Judah and Omar Pittman.
The Philadelphia native is confident and ready to take full advantage of the opportunity. “I know I have made mistakes regarding my conditioning and preparation in the past, I relied on my ability alone and was killing myself to make weight,” said Mack.
“But things have changed. I am stronger and fitter than I have ever been in my career, I have changed everything in regard to my preparation for fights and now keep to a strict diet and take regular vitamins which I never did in the past.
“I am living and training how a true professional should. Not only that, I am fully focused on fulfilling a promise I made to my father on his death bed that I would win a world title for him.
“As far as I am concerned, Henry is in my way of keeping that promise. I will be putting him to sleep. I am suppose to be here and I will continue to prove that to all my doubters out there.
“I have the right team behind me and I have been with my trainer John Tandy for nearly a year and he has changed my life. I am a different person to the one that lost those fights, I will not be losing again”.
Henry has also competed at the highest level when he faced WBC Champion Adrian Diaconu at fairly late notice in the Romanian’s hometown. Henry pushed Diaconu all the way and at times looked like he may become the first man to beat him.
Henry has recovered well from the points loss and won his last two fights against decent opposition, with his record an impressive 23-1 with 18 wins inside the distance.
Henry is the bigger man, fighting his whole career at either light heavy or cruiserweight and will be confident he is the stronger of the two.
An interesting addition to the undercard is hot young unbeaten middleweight prospect Fernando Guerrero, 12-0 (11), going against an opponent yet to be determined, who will be looking to impress in front of his hometown fans.
Guerrero had a busy 2008 with 11 fights and is looking to move through the rankings quickly to establish himself as a top contender in the near future.
This fight will be shown live on ESPN2 and the main event of Mack vs. Henry will be for Mack’s NABA and Henry’s NABF titles over 12 rounds.
