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Unified Title on ‘Ice’
By Sean Stowell (April 25, 2003)
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Montell Griffin’s nickname is “Ice” and it was easy to tell why during a national conference call Wednesday afternoon. The call featured Griffin, his opponent on Saturday night Antonio Tarver, and the principals in the main event, Vassiliy Jirov and James Toney.
Griffin and Tarver, originally scheduled to fight for the NABF light heavyweight title will now tussle for the vacant IBF and WBC titles, while Jirov defends his IBF cruiserweight title against Toney on HBO’s Boxing After Dark this tomorrow night.
During the first half of the call, it was difficult for anyone to get a word in as Toney continually berated Jirov and his trainer Tommy Brooks. When Griffin and Tarver got on the line, Griffin seemed calm, cool and collected.
“I can’t wait until Saturday,” he said. “I really don’t have too much to say, I’m just ready to fight.”
One would expect a little more excitement from Griffin who now has a chance to legitimately win a world title. A top light heavyweight for the better part of a decade, Griffin 44-3 with 28 KOs, has twice defeated Toney and is the only fighter to put a notch in the loss column of Roy Jones Jr. to win the WBC light heavyweight title.
He won two closely contested bouts with Toney, taking a majority decision in 1995 and a controversial unanimous decision in 1996.
Toney was complimentary of his former foe when asked by MaxBoxing.com what he thought of Griffin’s chances to capture the unified titles.
“I think Montell’s got a good chance of winning a world title on Saturday night before I win mine,” Toney said. “I wish him the best. He’ll have a tough fight in front of him and I hope he be ready.”
Griffin defeated Jones literally with his back on the canvas. Jones was disqualified in the ninth round after hitting Griffin when he was down. But Jones was clearly frustrated during the fight as Griffin outlanded him 141-113 into the ninth round according to CompuBox statistics. Jones landed 30 percent of his punches compared to 47 percent by Griffin.
Griffin also led on one of three scorecards after eight rounds (77-75 and 76-75 for Jones and 76-75 for Griffin).
Five months later Jones destroyed him in the first round.
He had a shot for the WBO title in 1999, against Dariusz Michalczewski who dropped Griffin in the fourth round in Germany. Assuming he gets past Tarver, Griffin would like to get another shot at both Jones and
Michalczewski.
“I’ve already talked to Roy and he told me to win the fight and if he ever makes it down to light heavy again he’d give me a shot,” Griffin said. “I’d love to fight Michalczewski in a rematch in the United States. I don’t think anybody is too excited about going over there.”
Tarver’s advisor Lou DiBella said that whoever wins this fight should be an enticing fight for the protected Germany-based fighter, but he feels Michalczewski doesn’t want to prove he’s the best light heavyweight in the world.
“At what point in time does this guy want to prove himself?” DiBella asked. “Does he want to retire before ever proving he’s a real champion? It’s up to Michalczewski if he wants to put up or shut up.”
Before he can think about inheriting the jewelry that Jones had forsaken in order to jump up to heavyweight, Griffin will have to put together a masterful performance to get past Tarver.
Just like his personality, Griffin, 32, fights at a controlled pace and will have to make his punches count against Tarver, 34. While he holds the edge in experience, at 5-foot-7 he is seven inches shorter than Tarver and doesn’t have the power to make Tarver scared.
Both fighters are on winning streaks with Griffin winning six in-a-row since his loss to Michalczewski. In his last outing he won a unanimous decision over George Khalid Jones. Tarver has won four straight after losing to Eric Harding three years ago. He avenged that loss in his last bout with a fifth- round TKO over Harding.
So whether it’s Jones or Michalczewski who are up next, Griffin and Tarver have a chance to begin a new chapter in the history of the light heavyweight division, and with Jones gone from the division it gives all the contenders in the division a chance to be the top dog, if they want it.
“The winner of this fight will have two nice pieces of jewelry,” DiBella said. “You’d think Michalczewski would want them.”
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E-Mail Sean Stowell at seanstowell@hotmail.com
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