Before Bernard Hopkins and
Chad Dawson engage in their rematch at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New
Jersey, a heavyweight tilt between Seth Mitchell and Chazz Witherspoon opens up
the HBO broadcast. There was a time when America yearned for a “Great White
Hope.” Nowadays, with the two-headed Klitschko monster putting a stranglehold
on the division, this country will settle for anybody- doesn't matter the
complexion. Right now, the talk is that Mitchell, a former linebacker at
Michigan State, is the best young heavyweight in the U.S.
Where have you gone, Larry
Holmes? A nation turns its longing eyes
to you.
“Yeah, I hear the talk and I
don't let it go to my head,” Mitchell told Maxboxing last week, regarding the
onus placed on him. “I realize there's a lot of buzz and everything that's
happening is because of what I'm doing. But at the same time, I believe in what
I'm doing and I believe I have the tools to one day become the heavyweight
champion of the world. But I know that all the talk, all the buzz, all the
noise can really turn to sour grapes if I have a loss or I go out there and
don't perform well. So that's how I stay humble; I just know it's because of
what I'm doing.”
Mitchell, 29, has a record
of 24-0-1 (18). When you ask about his standing in the division, he states, “I
truly believe if you take the Klitschkos out of the picture right now, you can
put me in with any of the heavyweights and I'd perform very well. I don't make
predictions or anything. I don't talk a lot or boast a lot but I believe I can
perform at the highest level right now.”
This upcoming test versus
Witherspoon will be Mitchell’s second appearance on HBO, so it's clear that the
stakes are rising for the Brandywine, Maryland native. He's no longer thought
of as that long-term project trying out a new sport but a bona fide young
contender.
“I believe I'm not that far
away from eventually taking one of the Klitschkos. I truly believe it's about
four fights away with the right fights and I know that each fight that I have
from here on out is vital to my career and my development and it will determine
how fast I can get my opportunity,” he says. “I want to be where the stakes are
high, though. I believe if you're in a position to perform where the stakes are
high, you're moving in the right direction.”
Mitchell is advised by the
ever-influential Al Haymon and promoted by Golden Boy Promotions. GBP CEO Richard
Schaefer says Mitchell is clearly the most promising, young, American big man. “I'm
not the only one who is saying that. Boxing experts, media members,
commentators and so on, they are all in agreement that Seth Mitchell is the next
great hope here for the American heavyweights. It's interesting because the
saying is, ‘What happened with the American heavyweights? Why are they no
longer there?’ Everybody agrees that the reason is they've been going into
other sports, particularly American football, and here you have a guy who was,
as well, lured in by football, was a star linebacker at Michigan State and had
a very promising future in the NFL and then because of injuries, would not pursue
that and turned to boxing.”
Schaefer continued, “So here
we are; here's an example, actually, of an athlete who was in the football
program and then came to boxing. He's a very athletic guy, a very determined
guy, a very hungry guy, a very committed guy. So absolutely, I think he's our
next great hope for the heavyweight title.”
It says here that
Witherspoon will test Mitchell, who still hasn't gone tough rounds late in a
fight with anyone of substance. Regardless, he's come a long way from the guy
who fought Henry Namauu as the walkout bout at the Morongo Casino in July of
2008 at the Morongo Casino in his fifth pro contest. Back then, the best thing
you could say about him was that…well, he was a pretty good Big 10 linebacker.
“There was, like, 14 fights
on that card. I think I was the 13th fight,” said Mitchell,
laughing, as he recalled that warm night in Southern California when Joel
Casamayor and Michael Katsidis headlined that HBO card. “It's amazing at how
far I've come,” he says, recalling another time he performed as an understudy. “I
was the very first fight and that was July 31st [2010], it was on
the [Juan Manuel] Marquez-[Juan] Diaz card, their rematch. I was the very first
fight; there was, like, 100 people in the stands and I had like 30 people come
down from Maryland to watch me fight. And from going from there to being
co-main event- my second time on- with a legend, Bernard Hopkins, it's just
truly a blessing.”
He's still unproven and an
unfinished product but for a guy who first laced on the gloves just four months
shy of his 25th birthday (after being inspired by Tommy Zbikowski,
another football player with a boxing background who tried his hand in the pro
ranks), it's hard not to be impressed
by his progress.
There was a time when this
Spartan's goal was to reach the heights of Ray Lewis and Patrick Willis but
he's long past being the football player who happens to box. He says he is
every bit as passionate about the “Sweet Science” as he was about the gridiron,
maybe even more so. Mitchell states, “I believe they are two totally different
sports but this is an individual sport, so it's kinda different. The feeling
is, I think, a better feeling because you go in the ring by yourself and you
win by yourself. I mean, I have a great team; I have a great trainer and I have
great people behind me. But what it all boils down to is, I'm in there by
myself and I'm throwing the punches, so it feels a lot better. People asked me
the question before; if I was blessed to win the heavyweight championship of
the world or to have won the Super Bowl in the NFL, which do I think would mean
more?
“And I think it would be
winning the heavyweight championship of the world because it's an individual
sport.”
There's an axiom in this
business that as the heavyweights go, so goes boxing. But if you look at the landscape
that exists today, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather are at the top of the
food chain and the sport’s popularity and strength is more Latin-based than ever
in the States. The Klitschkos have largely been relegated to Europe and their
fights are broadcast on EPIX. So how much would it mean to the industry in the
United States to have a homegrown heavyweight titlist?
“The proof is in the
pudding,” says Schaefer. “You see that the pay-per-view numbers are at all-time
records and they’re all lower weight classes. But having said that, I think
from a financial point of view, it doesn't hurt. But from a general public
point of view, from a fan base point of view, I think without any question it
would be great to have an American heavyweight [as a champion]. Because the
heavyweight division was and will always be the glamour division and I think an
American heavyweight will be able to bring more of the casual fan to the sport
of boxing. And that's something that's obviously not the case- or is he only
the case on a handful of fights or fighters?
“So I do think it would be
good to have it. But it's interesting to see, as well, you have two dominant
brothers in the Klitschkos and they were just never able to really able to
connect with the U.S. audience. I say it's interesting because you can say, ‘Well,
they're not American,’ but it doesn't really matter. Look at Manny Pacquiao-
who's not American, either- and he was able to capture the interest of the
general American sports fan. So I do think, whether American or not, it is
important to eventually have a heavyweight who is recognized in the United
States and it has to be a heavyweight who fights here on a regular basis here
in the United States.”
Can Mitchell be that guy?
HARDCORE FAN
Speaking of fans, Mitchell
admits that as he's gone along in the process, his interest in the sport as an
observer has grown.
“I was a casual fan before.
I would only watch the major mega-fights,” he admitted. “Now, anytime I see
boxing, even if it's on a Spanish channel and I can't understand it, I just
watch it to learn and try to pick up things not only from heavyweight fighters
to flyweight fighters, fighters I've never heard of or never seen. I just try
to be a sponge and pick up as much as I can.”
SHOWTIME
If any one-sided
doubleheader can have some entertainment value, it was perhaps this past
weekend’s card at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas where Showtime
featured a boxing exhibition from Anselmo Moreno, who successfully defended his
WBA bantamweight title by thoroughly dominating David De La Mora in eight rounds.
Abner Mares, who captured the vacant WBC super bantamweight crown by
out-fighting the game Eric Morel over 12, also delivered a solid outing.
“Chemito” (who, based on
that purple felt crown he wore after the fight, needs a Crown Royal endorsement)
is one of the game’s true stylists. In an age when clutching, grabbing and
incessant clinching is trumpeted as “skill,” Moreno shows what real boxing is
all about. He stands right in the pocket, plants his feet and can change
distance by moving his upper body (which is as flexible and elastic as a rubber
band) and is more than willing to dig to the body on the inside. This was just
a classy performance from Moreno, a significant threat to anyone from 118-122.
As for Mares, he's become a
guy who consistently puts on solid efforts and his fights never seem devoid of
action. If you look at what's around him at junior featherweight, you have some
really good potential bouts (Nonito Donaire, Guillermo Rigondeaux, Jorge Arce
and Moreno, who may be destined to move up) that could loom in the future- the “Cold
War” notwithstanding.
FINAL FLURRIES
This last edition of “ShoBox”
lived down to every expectation. As for Jermain Taylor, it almost seems
inevitable that he will be lined up for a significant fight for big money.
Should he get hurt badly, just remember who was involved in making this happen...Adonis
Stevenson reminds me of another hard-punching southpaw trained by Emanuel
Steward long ago- “Dangerous” Don Lee...On May 4th, on Fox
Sports/Deportes, Golden Boy Promotions has a telecast featuring Daniel Ponce de
Leon versus Eduardo Lazcano and Ishe Smith facing Derek Ennis...Jesse Hart, son
of the noted Philly middleweight Eugene “Cyclone” Hart, has signed a promotional
deal with Top Rank...Anyone see “Floyd Mayweather Speaking Out”? I thought the
first half was pretty good, especially the part about his relationship with his
father. But unfortunately, host Michael Eric Dyson predictably let him off the
hook in the later stages of the interview as it related to the defamation suit
with Pacquiao and the failed negotiations for that fight. And really, did Floyd
invoke Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, regarding his prison sentence?...So
how many games does Metta World War get for that cheap shot on James
Harden?...Jordan Hill, really? Huh. Who knew?...So when do the Angels become a
tad concerned about Albert Pujols and his power outage?...Seriously, ABC’s “Scandal”
is off to a very nice start...
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