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One Mo' Chance
By Steve Kim (February 27, 2003)
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Maurice Harris is boxing's equivalent of a 'street baller'. Like those playground legends of the past like 'the Goat' or recent black-top ballers like 'Headache', 'The Main Event', '50', 'Half-Man, Half Amazin', 'Skip To My Lou' and 'Hot Sauce' — guys who have been immortalized on the 'And1' mix tapes. Harris is respected for his abilities, but his best work is done underground.
There's no doubting these guys' skills and athletic abilities on the basketball court, but for some reason, be it discipline, drugs, bad behavior, lack of direction or a combination of all these things, they often times get no further than the famed Rucker Park. Harris, for all his talents, sports a mediocre record of 19-12-2 and his brightest moments have come as a sparring partner to the game's biggest names. This Saturday night at the Thomas and Mack Arena in Las Vegas -- long before the main event of Roy Jones-John Ruiz goes off -- he gets another chance to salvage his career against contender Fres Oquendo.
If he doesn't, he keeps his status as an enigmatic journeyman who is destined to go down with the likes of 'Bossman' Eddie Jones, the Weaver triplets and countless other fighters out of Philadelphia whose legacy has come in gym wars with 12-ounce gloves and headgear for a few bucks.
At stake is the number two ranking in the IBF and more importantly, a career worth pursuing if Harris should downsize 'the Big O'. A loss here, and he might as well start filling out employment applications.
"Just a basic fighter, man," says Harris, in sizing up Oquendo. "Just, very, very basic. Just a single puncher, he's not a combination puncher. He's really not no boxer to me, he hasn't been through the things I've been through. Y'nah what I'm sayin'? Watching him, it's just like, you wonder sometimes how did he make it?"
That maybe true. But Oquendo has to be given credit, despite modest skills, he's amassed a record of 23-1 and before taking an ill-advised fight last year with David Tua (where he'd get stopped in nine) he was the WBO's top rated heavyweight. Oquendo, is the classic overachiever, Harris the quintessential underachiever.
Why does he have a mark of 19-12-2?
"Just being young and stupid," explained Harris, of his ledger, "just coming in ill-prepared, not taking the game serious, just taking everything for granted, relying on my talent more than conditioning. And now, I got the conditioning behind me, I'm in top shape, I'm in the best shape of my life actually. This ain't no bullshit, I'm in the best shape of my life."
OK, but why should we believe him now? Aren't fighters with spotty track records saying that they are 'in the best shape of their lives' boxing's equivalent of crying wolf?
"You know why?" answered Harris, when asked why we should believe his claim. "Well, y'know what? Seeing is believing. I'm just a lil' bit more mature and it's like I used to go through my work and I used to complain, just complain because I wasn't happy with the training. I just wouldn't put myself through it. But now, I've been going through it, boxing 12 rounds regularly, I'm ready man, I'm ready."
It's amazing that Harris is even in the position to be fighting for the number two spot in the IBF.
Especially in light of the fact that it was less than two years ago that he suffered back-to-back losses to Chris Byrd and then even worse, a first-round knockout loss to Henry Akinwande of all people. With some shrewd maneuvering and manipulating of the IBF rules, a win over Oquendo could put him in a position to be fighting for a world title. But you'd think that this is Harris' last chance at salvaging his career.
"I think to say that any fighter is down to his last chance, based on what we see in boxing today, it would be hard to say that," said his advisor, Charles Muniz. "But I think it would be very difficult for Mo to pick himself back up and get back into the hunt of the heavyweight division if he loses this fight.
"He's young and that gives him time but I think that if he does lose this fight, he's basically going to be relegated to being a journeyman fighter."
"I still wasn't fully recovered, man, from the fight with Byrd," Harris says, explaining his loss to Akinwande in June of 2001 in Cincinnati, Ohio. "I was still going through that. Y'know, he just caught me. I just wasn't ready, not taking nuthin' away from him, he just got me with a good shot."
Harris would begin the rebuilding process by taking nearly a year off and he would face the unbeaten Serguei Lyakhovich (16-0) last June on the undercard of Evander Holyfield-Hasim Rahman in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He would stop Lyakhovich in nine rounds and then he would win Cedric Kushner's much-maligned 'Fistful of Dollar's' tournament, winning the $100,000 top prize and a rating in the IBF.
In defeating Gerald Nobles, Israel Garcia and then Tony Thompson in his eight-man tourney, Kushner would proclaim of Harris "the best heavyweight with the worst record in the world", which is a compliment, but isn't that like being the valedictorian of a reform school?
"First of all, you have to remember they threw him in into the ring as a pro when he was 16 years of age -- it was illegal for him to fight at 16," said Muniz, beginning to explain how Harris had gotten to this point. "But he was by himself. His mother had passed away, his father wasn't with him, he was just one of these kids running the streets and needed some money. So people took advantage of him and said, 'Hey, you could make some money by doing this.'
"He was always a very athletic person, I think the reason why Mo Harris is 19-12-2, is that he has never had any type of dedication to his sport. To be a champion, to be the best at what you do out there, you have to work at it and Mo has not been the type of fighter who has really dedicated himself to be better. Most of his fights have been on five days notice or less.
"People in the boxing world, really know how good Mo really is so nobody's out there looking for him and saying 'We want to fight Mo Harris'. But everybody has been able to catch him on short notice and he can win many fights on four days notice like in the case versus Jeremy Williams because he's just so much a better fighter and boxer than these guys.
"But had Mo Harris had been the type of person that someone would have gotten to early in the game, there is no question in my mind that if he would have been guided correctly, he would've been a gold medalist at the Olympics because if you look at the heavyweights today that are coming out, they're 30 years old when they're turning pro. This guys 27 and he already has 30 professional fights. He is probably, in my opinion, the most talented heavyweight that's out there today."
But it's hard to overlook that fact that Harris lost to a Jay Kenna (in his pro debut), then got knocked out by Richard Frazier (yes, the policeman that got beat up by Roy Jones) in four rounds in his fourth pro bout, and has losses to the likes of Scott Lopeck, Richie Brown, Dayton Wheeler and John Andrade. For all his bright spots against Larry Holmes (a close controversial decision loss), his slugfest against Derrick Jefferson and wins against David Izon and Williams, it's the blemishes that stand out.
Perhaps Muniz is exaggerating, but Floyd Mayweather Sr., who trained Harris for a spell, had this to say about his former fighter: "I think he had the potential to be a world champion. But it's something there that's lacking. I don't know what it is. It's heart or something or whatever. But he's got all the skills for a big man. He fights like an Ali.
"He threw a combination against Jimmy Thunder, it was so fast, I couldn't even see it, man. No lie."
But Mayweather also added "He ain't got the mindset and the guts, the will and the desire to do what it takes to be champion. That's where his downfall is."
There is a train of thought that Harris has gotten used to losing and is therefore a 'frontrunner' who will fold up his tent early if things don't go well. Too many fights taken on short notice and early losses have given him a permanent sparring partner mentality. But Harris has only one regret pertaining to his boxing career.
"I would have stayed amateur longer," stated Harris. " That's what I would have done. If I would have stayed amateur a lot longer, I would've just gone through the trials and tribulations of being an amateur and then turned pro. That would've made me a much better pro fighter but unfortunately it didn't turn out that well. So here I am."
"I was just hungry for money, man," said Harris, explaining his decision to turn pro so early. "Some people around me weren't looking out for the best of my interests, just put me in. I had a lot of people around me telling me not to do it, but I'd rather do that than go to jail, y'know."
Yeah, well, it beats slangin' dope.
"Fo' sure, fo' sure," answered Harris, laughing.
But Harris, through it all, has carved a niche as a top-notch sparring partner.
"He's chief sparring partner for two of the biggest heavyweights in boxing, Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson," Muniz points out. "Mo does not go into those camps and have difficulties with 'the Emperor' nor does he have difficulties with Tyson. So when you have the skills to be able to compete at that level, his record is not indicative of his skills."
But you don't win Cy Youngs or batting titles in spring training. Legacies and careers are built on real fights. And you only get paid so much for being a sparring partner. And make no doubt about it, for Harris, this fight against Oquendo is huge. Harris has spent the past month leading up to March 1st in Vero Beach, Florida away from all the distractions of Newark, New Jersey.
"I have never, in all the years I've known Mo Harris, seen him prepare the way he's prepared for this fight," said Muniz, who has advised Harris for the past couple of years. "That means, first of all, we put together his own camp for this fight, he has never had his own camp. Where by we send him away somewhere, we brought in sparring partners that we paid for and at the same time, had him workout with good sparring but he also had a conditioning coach. So in terms of dedication and what he's needed to do to win this fight, he's never done that in his entire life."
Bashir Ali, who trains Harris, is happy with the way things have gone in Vero Beach, the spring training home of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
"Oh yeah, I love it, we're ready," said Ali. "I think it's Mo's maturity, his maturity and his focus on the fight. Maurice has come a long way, been through the school of hard knocks. I don't think Fres Oquendo, even though I respect him, I don't think he brings anything to the dance that Harris hasn't seen yet. Harris, has seen everything, he's been knocked out, he's knocked people out, he's seen everything. He's settled down now and he's training a way a professional should train, where before, he would take it or leave it."
It's now or never for Harris. He either makes boxing a serious career or becomes a career sparring partner for good. It's his chance to make a mark on a wide open division.
"Yeah, it's wide open," Harris agreed, "and it's time for me to become firm in my spot, that's all. It's just time for me to make a statement, stop taking the game lightly, get a lil' bit more serious with my training and just go in there and just use my talent. I got all these tools but I was never able to use them because I would never get myself in proper condition."
MO'S PREDICTION
So who does Harris tab in Jones-Ruiz?
"I see Roy beating the crap out of him."
CAMPING
Harris, whose main sparring partners for this camp were Larry Donald and Al Cole, was using the training facilities of Buddy McGirt, who was preparing Clifford Etienne for his bout with Mike Tyson. But he never ran into 'the Black Rhino'.
"They asked me to leave the gym when he was training," Harris says. "Like I could really learn something from him? C'mon man. Me and him (are) two different fighters. I can't learn nuthin' from Clifford, y'nah what I mean?"
Well, you could take notes on how to calmly take out your mouthpiece while awaiting the ten-count on the canvas.
APPROPRIATE ENDING
It was a fitting conclusion to a wild two weeks for Freddie Roach, who tried his best to train Tyson for his bout with Etienne the past six weeks.
It turns out that after the post-fight press conference that Roach was left behind at the arena by the Tyson caravan and had to basically bum a ride from somebody at the arena -- who just happened to be a MaxBoxing member (true story).
If not, it would have been one helluva walk back to the hotel for Roach.
"After I got done with my interviews, I went outside and was looking for our group," Roach explained. "They told me everyone left at least 30 minutes ago. I asked some guy who was still there if I could get a ride back, he told me he was going in the opposite direction back to North Carolina, but he gave me a ride anyway. I told him I'd pay for the gas. He wouldn't take my money, so I'm sending him some T-shirts from my gym. He was a nice guy."
For Questions or Comments
E-Mail Steve Kim at k9kim@maxboxing.com
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