Columnist Dean Juipe: Allen needs pivotal win vs. Spinks

Dean Juipe

Thursday, Feb. 22, 2001 | 10:07 a.m.

Dean Juipe's boxing notebook appears Thursday. His sports column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

It's a tough assignment, but credit Dennis Allen with knowing what he's up against.

Allen, a relative newcomer to Las Vegas, is fighting Cory Spinks in a 10-round welterweight bout Friday in Austin, Texas, that will be televised by ESPN2.

With Top Rank promoting the card and having Spinks under contract, Allen realizes he's not expected to win and might have to overcome the judges' biases in the fight.

"He's Top Rank's fighter so I'm already a couple of rounds down going in," Allen said before departing for Austin on Wednesday. Yet he feels even a prejudicial jury will like what he has to show once the fight plays itself out.

"Spinks is difficult because he's a southpaw and he fights defensively," Allen said. "It usually makes for an ugly fight, so I know it won't be easy for me to look good.

"But he's not going to be strong enough to keep me off of him. He's coming up from 140 (pounds) and the difference in our punching power is going to work against him."

Spinks is 24-1 but with only 10 knockouts.

Allen is 22-3 with 11 KOs and feeling as if he's ready for a peak performance. At 28 years old, he needs a pivotal win to invigorate his career.

"I don't have a 'best' win," he admitted. "I've fought a lot of last-minute replacements and it's been difficult for me and them."

The only notable name on his ring resume is Lonnie Smith, and Allen lost a 10-round decision to him in 1997. But Allen is on a three-fight wining streak that includes a pair of knockouts.

"I feel like I'm ready to make some noise," he said. "I've relied on speed my whole career, and I think I can surprise Spinks with my speed, but I'm also a little stronger than I once was."

He and his wife, a schoolteacher, have lived in Las Vegas for three years after moving (for boxing reasons) from Minot, N.D.

"Everybody's here," he said of relocating to Las Vegas and training at Nevada Partners. "I can get the type of sparring and teaching that wasn't available to me in North Dakota."

Allen is getting this shot at Spinks (and notoriety) as the result of a favor owed him by Top Rank. After serving as a sparring partner for Oscar De La Hoya for his fight last June with Shane Mosley, Allen was promised a fight on that LA card but it never came off.

"Top Rank said they'd make it up to me," Allen said. "And here it is."

Williams, 36, is 33-5-1 with 24 knockouts, while Wilcox is 15-1-1 with a mere five KOs.

"I don't know too much about him," Williams said by cell phone from Pensacola, Florida, where, at the time, he was fishing off a bridge. "I know he's tall and he's supposed to be a boxer, but I'm not too worried about him.

"I've fought tougher guys than him."

Williams has fought a number of tough guys and beaten several of them, including Dwight Qawi, Adolpho Washington and Imamu Mayfield. But losses to Orlin Norris and Vassiliy Jirov derailed him, although he is still ranked No. 4 by the IBF, No. 6 by the WBA and No. 9 by the WBC.

"I need to get past this fight here and then maybe one or two more," Williams said. "I'm looking to fight Jirov (the IBF champion) again and with a couple more wins I'll become his mandatory.

"I'd also fight (WBA champ) Virgil Hill, if that came up first."

Williams said his health problems, related to hepatitis, are behind him and that he's "100 percent" for Wilcox.

"I was told he's the right kind of fighter for me, so I'm hoping I don't have any trouble," he said.

"No disrespect to Roy, but I'm coming to fight," Harmon told the Associated Press in Florida. "The sun can only shine so much in one person's life. And when your lights get to flickering, it's time for me to put 'em out."

Harmon, a southpaw, is 20-1 with 10 knockouts. He's getting $500,000 for what is apt to be the biggest fight of his life.

"He's a puncher," Jones said of Harmon. "If I were to lose, I'd want it to be against someone like him. But I'm not ready to lose."

Jones will be paid $5 million for the fight, which will be televised by HBO.

"I'd rather give a guy who I haven't faced a chance," Jones said. "He's going to have something to prove."

The undercard for the April 7 Naseem Hamed vs. Marco Antonio Barrera fight at the MGM will be topped by a super middleweight fight between Dana Rosenblatt, 37-1-1, and Stephane Quellet, 29-3. ... Simultaneous with the announcement that the Lennox Lewis vs. Hasim Rahman April 21 heavyweight title fight would be going to Johannesburg, South Africa, was the revelation that Lewis and promoter Panos Eliades have split. Eliades is suing Lewis for $2.5 million he said is owed him, adding that "If he paid me $10 million today I'd walk away from him" without turning their disagreement into a lengthy court case. ... With Chuck Sledge having retired, the Nevada State Athletic Commission is expected to name Tony Lato chief inspector at its Friday meeting.