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TONY
THOMPSON CALLS OUT THE HEAVYWEIGHT TITLISTS
By Michael Swann
Fast
rising heavyweight contender Tony Thompson wants a shot at a title, he
wants it in a fair and timely manner, and he doesn’t care who he has to
fight to get it. Thompson is well aware of the
politics of boxing but he feels that
he’s come too far to stand on the sidelines at this stage of his career.
Thompson,
30-1 (18), will be 36 in October. He is a rarity
in boxing in that he had his first amateur fight at the comparatively
advanced age of 27. He went an unimposing 13-3 as
an amateur before turning pro at age 28 in 2000. He
flew well under the radar until July 28, 2006 when he surprised most
observers by soundly defeating the once highly touted Dominick Guinn by
unanimous decision. He followed that win with
another convincing UD over Timor Ibragimov,
(Sultan’s cousin), who had previously suffered but one loss, that to Calvin
Brock.
The win
over Timor this past February set up an opportunity to participate in a WBO
title eliminator against former title challenger Luan Krasniqi
in the German’s back yard of Hamburg. Thompson was
nearly a 2-1 underdog. Knowing the difficulty that
Americans have had in winning decisions there in recent years, Tony and his
team knew that the surest way to victory was to take it out of the hands of
the judges.
“We need
a knockout,” Tony’s chief second, Barry Hunter, said before boarding the
plane to Germany. “And we’re going to get it.”
On July
14, Tony scored yet another upset, stopping Krasniqi
in the fifth round after four plus rounds of one sided action. The victory made Thompson the WBO mandatory contender,
yet he is still somewhat anonymous to many boxing fans who have yet had the
opportunity to see him. The Krasniqi
fight was not televised in the U.S.
On
October 13, current WBO belt holder Sultan Ibragimov
is facing WBA titlist Ruslan Chagaev
in a unification match to be held in Moscow. (Despite
the obvious importance of this fight, as of this writing there are still no
arrangements made as yet for American TV. A source
said that an announcement on this would be made shortly and it would not be
PPV.)
The
problem, from Thompson’s perspective, is that WBO bylaws state that their
champion has one year to make his mandatory defense from the date of
acquisition. If Ibragimov
wins, that date begins from June 2007 when he took the title from Shannon
Briggs. Chagaev’s year
would begin in October if he defeats Sultan.
It
doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that regardless of who wins
they are going to be in position to demand big bucks for an optional title
fight after the first of the year, negotiating as the first unified
heavyweight titlist of this century. So the best
case scenario for Thompson is for Ibragimov to
keep winning and fight him by next June. A worse
case would be if Chagaev wins and keeps Thompson
dangling until October 2008. The worst possible
scenario is that Chagaev wins over Ibragimov, and then fights in a mega fight early next
year and loses. Thompson, already underrated and
comparatively unknown, could potentially be in for a long wait after
forking up the sanctioning fees to achieve the mandatory status.
To make
matters worse, after months of battling between promoters, Oleg Maskaev has finally agreed this week to make his
mandatory defense of the WBC title against Samuel Peter on October 6 at Madison Square Garden. The winner of that bout is committed to fight the comebacking Vitali Klitschko, assuming that as expected he defeats Jameel McCline in September. So the only major titlist who seems to be available in
the near future is IBF belt holder Wladimir Klitschko.
“Of
course I want to fight for the WBO title because they gave me that first
opportunity,” Thompson said this week. “But if I
get a chance to fight Klitschko, who is regarded
by many as the heavyweight champion of the world regardless of belts, I’d
love to fight Klitschko because I know I can beat
him. I can’t blame a guy for going after another
belt as long as they fight the mandatory in the given time. But, if all that political stuff makes it hard to
fight for the WBO title, I don’t want to sit out a year.
“He [Wladimir] knows the problems he had when he was
sparring with me. I’m not going to say I was
killing him or anything but he found that he couldn’t run over me like he
did everyone else. I made Wladimir
work all the time, I made him think, and if he slacks up one moment that’s
going to be my trophy and I’m going to
take it.
“I won’t
know anything until October. We’ll see who wins
and if the WBO steps up to make those guys fight me. But
I want to be heavyweight champion of the world. I
want to be the WBO champion, but more importantly I want to be the
undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. The
WBO is just giving me the opportunity to call out all those other
champions.
“If
they’re lined up right now, I guess it’s Klitschko. He wants to be known as the best, so come on over to
America and fight the best in the U.S. and that’s me. He’s
fighting guys he knows he can easily beat. Fight
someone who can give him a challenge, and that’s me.”
Before
he went into boxing, Tony was working for a PR firm, working on landscaping
and decided that he wasn’t making the kind of money that he needed to take
care of his family. He said that he decided to use
his physical gifts to earn additional income, accounting for his late start
in the business.
“I’m
well preserved,” he said of his delayed entrance into boxing. “Guys my age usually have more fights, maybe 200 by
now, including the amateurs. I haven’t had 50. Oh, I’m good until I’m 40.”
Without
fanfare or big time support, Thompson plowed ahead in those early days of
his pro career, a diamond in the rough with a late start and inexperience
to overcome. He lost a four round unanimous
decision in his fifth fight in 2000 and hasn’t lost since then. He was knocked down twice by Chester Hughes in 2001,
and recovered to score a first round TKO. He
recalled some tough fights, including Hughes, who he conceded had him hurt in that fight.
Tony
remembers veteran Vaughn Bean (2004) as “having a hard head.” Thompson decisioned Bean in
10. Also in 2004 he fought then undefeated Yanqui Lopez.
“He was
brought in on the day of the fight,” Thompson recalled of Lopez. “The dude hit me with 13 low blows and two head butts. He did everything he could to win.”
Thompson
won the unanimous decision over Lopez.
Barry
Hunter began working with Thompson for the Guinn fight, just over a year
ago. The results have been extraordinary. Tony recognizes Hunter’s contribution but says that
the primary difference in the past year has been opportunity.
“I was
nobody,” Thompson explained. “Nobody wanted to
give me the opportunity. There was no reason to
get into the ring with a 6’5”, 250 pound southpaw. So
now my management team with Nate Peake has done a
great job of setting me up.
“But
it’s the whole team, not just Barry, like the conditioning coach showing me
a different level I could be training at. But with
Barry it’s good that I’m with a name that people recognize because you know
how boxing can be. Barry works together with Tom
Browner, my original trainer.”
If
Thompson wins a belt he will truly become a feel good, rags to riches story
that everyone loves, someone that people will want to root for as they know
more about him. He’s athletically gifted, a
massive figure in the ring, he’s still improving, and he’s been the
underdog throughout his career.
“That’s
good,” Tony says of his underdog status. “Continue
not to give me my credit because you’re going to be looking up at the
lights. I told everyone before (Krasniqi) that I was going to make people’s mouths drop
when I beat this guy. I sparred with Krasniqi three or four years ago and I held my own and
that was before I knew what I was doing.”
Thompson’s
long term goal is to open his own gym:
“I’d
like to start training some younger kids myself. Maybe
I’ll go back to school and learn a few things. I
think I’d be a good person to give them direction. You
have to stay the course with these kids. The
opportunity doesn’t always present itself and when it does it’s not always
with the right people.”
If
anyone would know about giving direction to kids, it would be Thompson. Happily married for 17 years, he has seven children,
four boys and three girls. He is also housing his
brother’s two children. He lives the life of a
model suburban family man, with his main interests being bowling and
“hanging out with the kids.”
“I’m just an ordinary fellow,” Thompson said. “I’m actually pretty boring. My
neighbors see me every day doing the same things I always do, walking the
dog, out enjoying the people.”
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