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02/11/2007 Archived Entry: "Now that the Storm has Cleared..."
Now that the storm has cleared....
is Vivian Harris the best junior-welterweight in the world?
by Alden "The Kid" Chodash
AS Emmanuel Steward stated Saturday night on HBO, Vivian Harris doesn't want to move up in weight. And for a while, that decision seemed stubborn based on the number of threats "Vicious Vivian" would be facing if he continued to fight in the 140-pound weight class. But after the sudden retirement of Kostya Tyszu, and the division's best talents such as Floyd Mayweather Jr, and Miguel Cotto moving up to fight at the now more lucrative welterweight division, that decision might as well suggest that Vivian Harris is the best 140-pound fighter in the world.
There's three names standing in his way, however, Ricky Hatton, Jose Luis Castillo, and Junior Witter. But with the sudden deterioration of Hatton and his likely opponent Castillo, and the sloppiness of Witter, Harris can arguably emerge victorious against that trio. Also dangerous in the division are Kendall Holt, Demetrious Hopkins, and Lovemore N'Dou, who suddenly emerged as a legitimate fighter recently with a stoppage over Naofel Ben Rabah. We'll see March 17th how much once-beaten Kendall Holt has progressed when he faces big-punching Greek, Mike Arnaoutis. Incidentally, Holt has been down against Jaime Rangel and was stopped in the first against a fighter who had fought once in only three years. Demetrious Hopkins is slowly becoming a complete fighter but is no where near as experienced as he will need to be to defeat Harris.
If there was a time in which we got to see Harris evolve into a complete fighter, it was last night against Juan Lazcano. Lazcano applied tremendous pressure that the former, weak minded version of Harris would have broke down from. And even when Harris was reeling in the ninth and tenth rounds under the attack of Lazcano, he displayed his tremendous conditioning by rallying and winning the final two rounds. I was pleasantly surprised to see this based on his performance against Carlos Maussa when Harris did quite the opposite down the stretch as he did last night and was out after one left hook in the seventh.
Harris' combination of speed and power will obviously make him a difficult fighter at any weight, but at junior-welter, I think it will make him unbeatable. His conditioning, which might of been the only thing keeping him from defeating the best in the division about a year or two ago, is vastly improved and I think he is ready for anyone. So when the storm cleared, so did many of Harris' flaws.
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Alden "The Kid" Chodash is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America as well as operator of AldenBoxing.com
