Dariusz Michalczewski:
"I'm at the peak of my career!"

HAMBURG, 17th September 1998. Fighting against an unbeaten opponent is
always a great risc for a professional boxer. Although no fighter can
show a perfect performance in every fight, it's only after the moment of
defeat, when his decisive weaknesses are becoming obvious.

This is the situation that WBO world light heavyweight champion Dariusz
Michalczewski is confronted with, when he makes a mandatory defense on
September 19 in Oberhausen against Mark Prince (18 Fights,            18
Wins, 14 KOs). It's the first time in the career of the Hamburg based
fighter, that he is facing a man, who has never lost a single
professional fight.

"We've studied several videos of Mark Prince", Fritz Sdunek, the chief
coach of the Universum gym, explains. "He has a lot of power and
sometimes he's making sudden attacks and throws wild and dirty right
hands. We have to pay attention to this. But Dariusz is going to put so
much pressure on him that Prince won't be able to develop his fight."

Dariusz Michalczewski (37 Fights, 37 Wins, 30 KOs) has won 13
consecutive world title fights in the light heavyweight division. This
is making him one of the most successful fighters in his weight class in
the history of boxing. Michalczewski celebrated one more world title
win, when he made an excursion to the cruiserweight in 1994.

In reply to Mark Prince's pretention that "Michalczewski is on the
slide" the WBO champ is reacting disgruntledly: "Being 30 years old I'm
at the peak of my career. All great fighters had their biggest success
in their mid 30's, like Thomas Hearns for example. I'm also at the peak
of my popularity. Since I defeated Virgil Hill last year, finally the
whole German nation has accepted me."

"More likely you could say, that Mark Prince (29 years) is already too
old to become world champion", 'The Tiger' countered. "I was 23 when I
won my first international title, and I was 26 when I became world
champion."

The favoured opponent of the Hamburg based fighter is the American
superstar Roy Jones, who unified the WBA and WBC world titles in the
meantime. But this fight could fail because of the unrealistic purse
demands of the American. "Roy Jones demands 10 Million Dollars. This is
unfair", Michalczewski sais in anger. "Nobody will be able to pay him
that much. I believe that Jones is demanding so much money, because he
is scared of me!"

However, before the negotiations for a possible Michalczewski-Jones
showdown can be continued, 'The Tiger' first has to get rid of the
dangerous Mark Prince.


Fabian Weber
International Press Spokesman
Universum Box-Promotion GmbH
_______________________________

German Boxing News
http://welcome.to/boxing/
Fax: (+49) (040) 31796717
_______________________________