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04/20/2006 Archived Entry: "Art Binkowski: Thinking of Little One at Home, Promises to Dispatch Walker as Quickly as Possible"
Art Binkowski: Thinking of Little One at Home, Promises to Dispatch Walker as Quickly as Possible
By Juan C. Ayllon
It was 2 A.M. Thursday morning and Canadian heavyweight boxer Art Binkowski was on the last leg of a drive from Toronto, Canada to Chicago. Scheduled to fight Friday night at the Cicero Stadium in Cicero, Illinois against one Tipton Walker, he had thought he'd be taking a more reasonable daytime drive that would get him to the Thursday night weigh ins with time to spare.
Not so.
According to his manager, Brian Nix, Binkowski’s camp was informed at the last minute that his registered blood tests were expired and additional tests needed to be completed in the morning prior to the weigh in. Nothing’s surprising in boxing these days, Nix added dryly.
Arriving at three or four in the morning, the affable Binkowski shrugged it off, saying, “That’s my regular time that I go to sleep anyways, day to day.”
Born in Mississauga, Poland, at 31 years age, Binkowski officially fights out of Chicago which, after Warsaw, holds the largest population of Poles of any city on the planet. Capitalizing on this market, his fights have been broadcast on Pole Vision (Channel 23 in Chicago) on a delayed basis. He has also granted interviews on a Polish radio station in Chicago, 1030 AM, which is associated with Pole Vision.
Art Binkowski is a former Olympian, having represented Canada at the 2000 Sydney, Australia Olympics. There, he lost in the quarterfinals against an Uzbekistan fighter, Saidov Rustam, for the Bronze Medal.
Commenting on the bout, he said, “He didn’t come to fight like the first guy I fought; he came to play. With computer scoring, any fighter’s jab is worth a knockdown. They took away the things that make boxing attractive: aggression [and] power of punching.”
Make no mistake about it, his is a wade in and slug it out, mano a mano style.
Binkowski began his pro career inauspiciously with a draw against Michael Moncrief on November 23, 2001. From there, he ran up a record of 14-1-2 with nine knockouts, culminating in a fight for the Canadian Heavyweight Title against Patrice L’Heureux on June 18, 2005. He lost by unanimous decision over 10 rounds.
Interestingly enough, Binkowski also served as sparring partner for the last universally recognized Word Heavyweight Champion, Lennox Lewis, helping him prepare for bouts against Evander Holyfield (the first bout), Fracoise Botha, and Hassim Rahman (the rematch).
Early in 2004, Binkowski took time off to play 30’s heavyweight contender Corn Griffith opposite Russell Crowe’s James J. Braddock in the film, “Cinderella Man.”
Ironically, after his June 2004 bout against David Cherry—which followed just months after filming, a public relations specialist noted that he looked sluggish and a tad heavy, saying, “Look how big his calves are!” Some would say that Hollywood and boxing don’t mix. However, unlike Lennox Lewis, who was knocked out by Hassim Rahman after acting in “Oceans 11,” Binkowski prevailed by knockout in the second round.
Now, 10 months after his Canadian title shot, a refreshed Binkowski faces Tipton Walker, who hails from Benton Harbor, Michigan and, with a deceptive record of 13-12-1 and six knockouts, comes with a resume packed with heavy competition. This includes: heavyweight contender Henry Akinwande, former IBF Cruiserweight Titlist Kelvin Davis, former European EBU Heavyweight Titlist Timo Hoffman, and former NABA Cruiserweight Titlist Chris Thomas. In fact, Tipton knocked out Thomas in September 2003, only to lose the rematch for the Vacant NABA Cruiserweight Title in November 2004.
With Binkowski’s no-nonsense, straight forward slugging approach, this should make for an all out war.
The night before his bout, Binkowski spared a few minutes from the noisy weigh in and granted a telephone interview, where he touched on training, his wife, Agatha, his son, Nicholas, and his boxing career.
JUAN AYLLON: How are you?
ART BINKOWSKI: Good, good.
JA: How has training been for this fight?
AB: Smooth. I trained no different from any other training in boxing. I did my running, I did my bag work and stuff. I got some good sparring and I’m feeling good!
The main difference here is I’ve been off for some time. I really thought I wasn’t coming back to boxing [any] more, although I’ve been going to the gym, training, staying active and athletic for the duration away from boxing.
But, still, I wasn’t motivated enough to watch my diet. I was up close to 270 lbs. And then my wife got on top of things, and she’s a skinny little thing, you know, and she told me to lose some weight. [She said], basically, ‘Go running, go running.’ You know what I mean?
But I don’t run. The only thing that motivates me to go running is a fight. So, I think she planned this out and she synchronized this going running to lose some weight with Brian Nix, my guy. You know what I mean? He started calling me up about a couple fights and stuff. He was bothering me for close to six months.
His attack was coordinated with my wife about this whole 'getting fat and ugly' thing, you know? So, that decided me to get in the ring tomorrow night. [sic]
And, I did some running, and I did some training and ‘Wifey’ was right, like always; I do feel better about myself. I feel lighter; I’m under 250 lbs. I was close to 270 two months ago.
So, I lost some poundage. I still eat my Haagen-Dazs ice cream almost daily. You cannot take that away! I just feel better, refreshed from this whole boxing thing, you know what I mean?
JA: Can you tell us who your sparring partners were and how they helped you prepare for Walker?
AB: No, that’s a boring discussion, plus I don’t think they would want me to give you that information, anyway.
JA: And, what kind of diet did you employ?
AB: Kind of diet? You take out the cheesecake, you take out some of the ice cream—and I’m talking on a daily basis, you know what I mean—you take out most of the Polish bakery stuff. I would consume the Polish bread, which is loaded with lots of carbohydrates. I love the Polish bread! You cut some of that out, [but] not everything. Like I said, something’s gotta stay and, like I said, Haagen-Dazs, that stays.
And, so you take some of that and you implement good training, some running with some boxing training, and I started melting down. The weight goes away.
But, like I said, it’s not the weight, it’s not the conditioning that’s much different from any previous fight for this fight; it’s mentally, I’m refreshed and I feel like I’m new.
Plus, my son just turned one the last year that I took off from boxing. I didn’t think I was coming back the last year that I was off from boxing. 90 percent of the time, 100 percent of the time, I spent with my son. That gave me a chance to connect better, I think.
Most families, if you look at the economical side of things, most people gotta work, especially when you have children. It’s hard for one parent to stay home. But I always was creative enough to not allow my wife to go to work after her maternity leave expired. So, she stayed home; she’s a stay at home mommy. And that’s because that was her dream, to stay with her little one constantly.
And, he’s got a shirt from a relative, from a friend—‘Handsome Devil,’ it states. And that’s exactly how I would describe him: blue and blonde eyes, [sic] very energetic. A lot of love was put into creating him. It sure was worth taking that last year and spending all that time with him. There’s so much joy.
All my life, I looked at boxing as one of the most important things in my life, if not the most important. That’s a job I know how to do inside and out. You know what I mean? I’m the one who went to the Olympics, remember?
And then, my little one was born, nothing else is as important, obviously. My life grew, it became more joyful and colorful.
I think this last year, I was able to create good financial backing for my family—my wife and my little one—and I take care of them financially very well. I provide for my wife; she don’t have to go back to no work. I think my little one’s got more going for him than any kid in the city of Toronto. It’s been a great bonding time, even though I’m married and I’ve got a wife and all that stuff, this little one, Nicholas, he brought us even closer with my wife.
I think of him right now. I’m going to be thinking of him getting into the ring!
Obviously, I’m going to take care of my opponent. I’m going to dispose of him as quickly as I can, although I don’t underestimate his ability or what he brings to the ring.
A lot of people were saying maybe he’s too tough of an opponent for the first comeback fight, but I’m not planning any other fights. So, we’ll take it fight by fight.
JA: Do you have any goals after that?
AB: My goal is to lose some pounds and continue spending time with my little one, and tomorrow night, getting in the ring and stuff. That’s ‘Entertainment,’ what I call entertainment to me.
The money getting paid for this fight, that’s insignificant and I’ll be happy going home to my little one who just started walking three months ago. At 10 ½ months, exactly, he started walking. We’re running, he’s getting more mobile, doing more things.
That’s about it. It’s like one weekend, you decide to go to Las Vegas, for some entertainment in the entertainment world, right? Same thing with boxing, here: I come in here, I didn’t want to fight a bum or a guy who’s shot.
With Tipton Walker, I don’t know much about him; I haven’t seen any tapes. I don’t want to see any tapes. I don’t care. Whatever he brings to the ring—and what quite a few boxing people told me is that rethink this fight because it might be too tough for a first comeback fight with this opponent. But, like I say, it’s my decision, my world and my game and who knows Binkowski better if not Binkowski himself? You know what I’m saying?
JA: One last question: What’s after boxing?
AB: That I don’t want to discuss. Very generally, you can put down that I’ve got some business arrangements put in place that, financially, I’m fine.
[Editor’s note: Art’s manager, Brian Nix, offered some additional information regarding Binkowski’s shot at the Canadian Heavyweight Title and subsequent plans]
JA: Tell us about the bout for the Canadian Heavyweight Title.
BRIAN NIX: Art tried to knock him out in the first two or three rounds. In the first, Art attacked him and a left hook sent Larue into ‘Queer Street.’ However, the punch landed after the bell, so they didn’t count it.
L’Heureux was 6’ 6” and all he did was jab and run, jab and run. Art was pretty disgusted and that’s why he retired.
With Tipton, we’re hoping he’ll go six rounds and help shake the rust off. Art’s a fighter, he’s 31 and the average age of a top 10 heavyweight is 35. Lennox Lewis was 37 or 38 when he retired.
JA: How much longer do you see Art fighting?
BN: We think Art has two or three years left.
In fact, there’s talk of him fighting Tomasz Bonin, [34-1 with 18 KO’s] the Polish National Heavyweight Champion, at the end of the year. His only loss was against [British Heavyweight] Audley Harrison in England in a nine round TKO and people thought they stopped it too quickly. And he fought much better than he did against Dominic Guinn. Bonin shook him in previous round, Harrison got him against the ropes in the ninth, Bonin took several shots and several of the Brits said they waved it off too quickly.
* * *
Come what may, Friday night promises an evening of fireworks aplenty at the Cicero Stadium. And you can bet on two things for sure: Art Binkowski will give it his best and, afterwards, will gladly brave the long road home to see his loved ones, even if it means driving at 2:00 A.M. in the morning.
Binkowski's bout will be one of the featured fights in a fightcard entitled, "Lightning Strikes," put on by Dominic Pesoli's 8 Count Productions.
