Shufford takes step up in class

Dean Juipe

Thursday, July 12, 2001 | 9:52 a.m.

It's a fight that other, perhaps better known, men rejected.

Take on Wladimir Klitschko, the World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion with a 36-1 record that includes 33 knockouts?

Many a would-be challenger said no thanks.

Yet when Charles Shufford was approached, he jumped at the chance.

"It's such a great opportunity I had to go for it," he said of meeting Klitschko in a bout scheduled for Aug. 4 at Mandalay Bay. "It's a decent payday and you don't get many chances at a title.

"I needed to take a step up and this is it."

Shufford, a lifelong Las Vegan, will take a 16-1 record (with eight knockouts) into a fight in which he is a substantial underdog. Nevertheless, he's in Big Bear, Calif., training and says he won't walk into the ring intimidated.

"This is a fight at a different level for me and I know Klitschko is big and strong," Shufford said. "But his knockouts don't seem too much to me. Everybody gets right back up after one or two counts, so I don't know how hard he actually hits.

"I think I've got a good chance of beating him, and, if I do, I'll be the one on top of everything."

While Klitschko's promotional team anticipates a victory over Shufford and is already fielding inquiries for another fight in October or November, the man in the batter's box sees it another way.

"I'll say it for you," he said. "Lots of guys passed up this fight because they're scared of Klitschko. But you can't be afraid of making a move and I'm definitely not scared.

"It doesn't bother me at all (that they're looking ahead). He's still got to get past me, and whatever they say or do won't bother me.

"It might even be good for me if they're taking me lightly."

Shufford got this fight on the strength of a somewhat unexpected decision win over Lamon Brewster last October in Detroit. That victory took the sting out of an earlier loss in 2000 to Robert Davis in Atlantic City.

Shufford also has wins over relatively decent fighters such as Jimmy Thunder, Derrick Banks, Louis Monaco and Tui Toia.

A product of Eldorado High School and the local Golden Gloves program, Shufford is 28 years old and stands a formidable 6-foot-3 and 235 pounds. Of course Klitschko is 6-7 and 245 and has polished off upper-level fighters such as Axel Schulz, David Bostice and Chris Byrd.

"But I don't see him as anyone to be scared of," Shufford said. "I've been the underdog before and I know what you have to do.

"I might even have been a bigger underdog against Brewster than I am against this guy."

Shufford, whose father and two uncles were also professional boxers, won that crucial fight by 6, 4 and 4 points on the judges' cards. And with that win, he became a player in the sport's highest profile division.

"I was always in the background and at times I felt I was at the bottom, with no exposure," Shufford said. "But I knew this day would come if I could keep winning. Win enough, and pretty soon they have to notice you."