 Team Arnaoutis ‘Devastated’ by Injury to “Mighty Mike”
 By Thomas Gerbasi (July 13. 2006) Photo © Tom Casino/SHOWTIME
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It was the unkindest cut of all Wednesday in New Jersey, as junior welterweight contender Mike Arnaoutis took three stitches over his left eyelid following a sparring session with Nate Campbell, forcing “Mighty Mike” to scrap his HBO Boxing After Dark debut against former world champion Vivian Harris, which was set for July 29 at the Chumash Casino Resort in Santa Ynez, California.
“We’ve devastated,” said Arnaoutis’ manager Mike Michael. “Two months of work just went down the toilet. Mike was crying his eyes out because a fighter knows when he’s going to get a victory. Emotionally, he just broke down.”
Wednesday’s sparring with Campbell was uneventful through the first five of a scheduled ten rounds, though Michael said that his charge’s work with ‘The Galaxxy Warrior’ was paying dividends for the unbeaten native of Greece.
“Those boys were really, really working, and it was the best I’ve ever seen Mike up to this point,” said Michael.
But after the two tied up in a clinch during the early stages of the sixth round, Arnaoutis emerged with the cut over his left eyelid.
“We don’t even know how the cut happened,” admitted Michael. “We don’t know if it was a clash of heads, the inside of a glove, or a punch because it was inside a clinch. I didn’t see it, the trainers didn’t see it, and I don’t think the fighters even saw it.”
Michael rushed Arnaoutis to Dr. Eugene C. Carroccia, plastic surgeon for former world champion Virgil Hill, and got him stitched up. But when asked whether Arnaoutis would be ready for the bout with Harris, Carroccia told Michael, “He cannot fight with that kind of cut over the eyelid. It will close up, and when you take him to the fight, the first shot that he takes on that cut, it’s going to split open like a melon.”
Now on the shelf for five weeks, Arnaoutis and his team will have to plot out its next move. Do they try to reschedule the Harris fight, or do they wait for the outcome of the welterweight title bout between Carlos Baldomir and Arturo Gatti, hoping that a Gatti win will entice current WBO junior welterweight champion Miguel Cotto to abandon his crown for a shot at Gatti, leaving a vacant crown open for the number two ranked Arnaoutis (number one is Jose Luis Castillo)? That’s all speculation though, and Michael says that at this moment, no future plans have been mapped out.
“Nothing’s been discussed yet,” he said. “We want to see what Harris is going to do first. I’ll leave that down to our promoter Joe DeGuardia and our Cestus Management consultant Brad Jacobs. They’re going to sit down with everybody – HBO, (Gary) Shaw (promoter of the 7/29 show), and at this junction, we just have to let everything die down a couple of days so we can get some straight answers. It’s still too premature to say anything.”
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E-Mail Thomas Gerbasi at tgerbasi@mindspring.com
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