“Everyone always asks us who is going to be the next great heavyweight. Well, on Sept. 11, we feel it will be Sam Peter’s shining moment.” – Todd DuBoef, president of Top Rank, Aug. 27
There is no possibility Sam Peter is going to be the next great heavyweight. He auditioned for the post years ago and was found wanting in savvy, dedication, heart and bottom – in everything but power, actually. Todd DuBoef is Peter’s promoter, of course, but he’s also a pretty sharp guy. So take a second look at the above quote: He cocks a haymaker then throws a jab.
In DuBoef’s defense, it should be remarked that his quote came at the end of a conference call tough to finish. Peter was indecipherable and taciturn. He did not want to discuss the past or future. He just wanted folks to watch him on Sept. 11.
That day on ESPN, Peter will challenge Wladimir Klitschko for one half of the heavyweight championship of the world, in Frankfurt, Germany. It will be a rematch of an entertaining 12-round scrap that happened almost exactly five years before. In promoting the fight, Peter did not give meaningful answers to any questions of strategy last week but, again, instructed us to watch Sept. 11. Why should we?
As it happens, there are two good reasons: what Peter did in his first fight with Klitschko, and what Peter did in his last fight in Texas.
Let’s journey back to 2005 and recall the time of Klitschko-Peter I. A different time indeed. If there were a Klitschko anyone took seriously, it certainly was not Wladimir. His older brother Vitali was coming off a pair of knockout victories in 2004 and about 10 months from announcing his retirement to go into Ukrainian politics, after injuries kept him from defending his WBC belt against Hasim Rahman. Wladimir, meanwhile, had our pity.
He’d not lasted four minutes against Corrie Sanders in 2003. He’d been unable to answer the sixth-round bell against Lamon Brewster in 2004. He’d hired trainer Manny Steward in the hopes Steward might play Wizard of Oz to his Lion. And every time he got hit, he wore a queasy look on his face that said, “Get me out of here.”
He was desperate to revive his career. So desperate, in fact, that he agreed to a fight against a wild-swinging undefeated African strongman incapable of being deterred by good boxing. If you’re new to the heavyweight division, that is, you might be shocked to learn that, in September of 2005, Wladimir Klitschko was perhaps boxing’s most sympathetic figure.
Klitschko-Peter I was about two questions: Is there a single well-delivered punch to Klitschko’s head that won’t knock him down? and does Peter have any boxing skills whatever? Neither question was answered. Most every time Peter landed a clean punch, Klitschko went down. And in 36 minutes, Peter landed about three clean punches.
But you cheered for Klitschko that night against Peter because he was so obviously fighting a fragile psyche as much as an undefeated opponent. He was dropped thrice and rose each time. Manny Steward bolstered his spirit between rounds, and Klitschko survived to win a unanimous decision.
But had you then told anyone watching that, in 2010, two Klitschko brothers would be seen as essentially indestructible, you would have needed to invent a third brother – Mikhail, Boris or Nikita, maybe? – to be taken seriously.
Today, Wladimir Klitschko is a monster of sorts; former contenders threaten their children with tales of his right cross before bedtime. And if you could take a model of Samuel Peter and give it any other name, Klitschko would ruin him. But there’s a very real chance that in a couple Saturdays, once the bell rings and Klitschko’s nimble brain runs a query on the image of Peter before him, some frightful values will get returned.
Then we’ll enter a laboratory of fear with Klitschko as our guide. Fear has a weakening effect whenever you experience it, of course, but it writes sentences with exclamation points in prizefighting. It begins with a hollowing-out of the upper legs and spreads to the knees, burning energy at an accelerated pace for which no conditioning regimen can prepare you. Run a marathon in camp, spar 100 rounds on Fridays, skip rope for six hours – go right ahead. Once you are afraid, once your body gets the message from your brain, you’re not conditioned well enough to finish a championship prizefight.
Is this guaranteed to happen? Of course not. Wladimir may in fact look across the ring on Sept. 11 and see the guy his older brother embarrassed in 2008 and Eddie Chambers decisioned in 2009. He may hit Peter with so many long jabs in the first six minutes that Peter reverts to form.
But Peter’s form, coincidentally, is the second reason his rematch with Klitschko could be interesting. Were you at the Gaylord Texan in March? If not, here’s the most surprising appearance made that weekend: Samuel Peter’s abdominal muscles. They were visible. At his lowest weight since 2001, Peter looked fantastic against Nagy Aguilera. He counterpunched with patience. He wasn’t shy about finishing his overmatched opponent, but he wasn’t reckless either. He waited for Aguilera to hang jabs and blasted him with right hands.
Klitschko does not hang his jab; frankly, he’s too skittish to hang any punch. But he does like to extend his left glove and use it as a sensor cum patty-caker. If Peter were somehow able to land his right hand over Klitschko’s outstretched left arm, he might just get another look at Wladimir’s queasy face.
It’s a long shot, but Todd DuBoef’s quote above could prove right on both counts. People are indeed always asking – and will still be asking – who is going to be the next great heavyweight. And Sept. 11 might actually be Sam Peter’s shining moment.
Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter.com/bartbarry