The Big Debate: “Vicious” Vivian Harris vs. Carlos Maussa.

Vivian Harris is a world champion but his name is not a power punch in the boxing world. He is the WBA’s belt holder since 2002 and he is a man on a mission. Harris is a puncher in every sense of the word, and is always willing to

counter punch with his opposition. Pull up a ringside seat; you are invited to a champion’s quest to be respected in his own weight division. I am not a man to look at a boxer’s record and declare them an automatic loser, if the system of debating was that simple, we would have no task in trying to capture a believable side to convince our readers, the boxer we are rooting for will come out of the ring with a win. Carlos Maussa is 17-2 with fifteen knockouts. He is durable and has some potential on making a mark in the richly talented junior welterweight division. Being durable and being a major threat to a world champion are two totally different traits. Harris is level headed and you have to applaud his low-key demeanor but convincing vocal protest when given some media time. The question at hand is, will Harris step it up? I do believe so.

Since we already had the Gatti-Mayweather Big Debate on our newly launched “TKO Boxing Show,” we bring you this breakdown of the WBA light welterweight title fight. Join us as Shaun Rico LaWhorn continues his argument in favor of champion Vivian Harris before Jonny Townsend’s counter in favor of Carlos Maussa.

This man has several boxing ears listening to his protest on why he should be considered a future opponent for Floyd Mayweather, Ricky Hatton, Arturo Gatti and Miguel Cotto. Expect the punches to be plentiful, the boxing clinic to open up and welcome the doctor of punches, Vivian Harris is going to perform a boxing checkup on Maussa. It is clear that Maussa is game, he did apply effort to Cotto and even though he ended up on the TKO bandwagon of Cotto, he did attempt to challenge the promising junior welterweight. Harris has the weight of proving he is a top-notch junior welterweight champion, if not the best. That is more than enough ambition to conquer a win and that is why we are going to witness an outstanding victory for Harris. Some people are so deeply concentrated on the Gatti vs. Mayweather war fest, but you have an outstanding fight right here. We have Maussa, who lost his current fight and we have Harris, a man who receives the treatment as if he never won a title fight. Today Harris will show us why he is a champion. It’s knockout time and Maussa has the misfortune of being Harris’s eighteenth knockout.

Jonny……

First things first. Vivian Harris is not Miguel Cotto. Harris was outclassed by the light-punching Ray Oliveira, but I’ll be generous and chalk that one up to inexperience. Anyway, this part is not about “Vicious” Vivian. This is about why Colombian Carlos Maussa will upset the boxing world and KO Harris on Saturday night. You probably don’t know too much about Maussa, except his loss to the Legend in the Making Cotto, so JT here will run you through things. Let’s look at statistics, because we all know that numbers cannot lie. Turning professional in Bogota in July 2000 at the late age of twenty-eight, Maussa racked up twelve straight knockouts, nine before the third round and moved to the U.S. to prove himself on the big stage, where he continued his knockout streak with another early knockout. He then beat the tough Cubano Hicklet Lau, on points over twelve, winning by wide scores of 116-112, 118-110, 119-109 and proving that going the distance is no problem for him. Another quick win followed and he was matched up against New York’s Golden Boy, Jeffrey Resto, who was 17-0 (12) and being talked about as the next big thing by the New York scribes. Maussa, slow but deadly, finished off his opponent in six rounds to make people sit up and take notice.

His “reward” was a bout against Cotto in the Puerto Rican’s hometown and he fought well before swollen eyes forced his corner to retire him after the eighth. Another win was followed by a disappointing loss to Mexican late bloomer Arturo Morua, who is on a good string of results and was just the smarter man on the night – a loss from which Carlos learned valuable lessons. Now comes his big chance to shine on the big stage and he has been working overtime with trainer Roberto Quesada. While the formbook will point to a Harris victory, I think that the Guyana fighter is looking beyond this bout and his lack of concentration in matters at hand will contribute towards a Maussa win by late TKO. Before you scoff, remember one thing! Maussa has knocked out every single South American born opponent he has faced and YOU CANNOT ARGUE WITH STATISTICS!

Shaun Rico LaWhorn can be reached at filmmaking_mentality@msn.com

Jonny Townsend can be reached at taansend@yahoo.com