Desert Storm vet ready to prove himself

Dean Juipe

Thursday, Nov. 29, 2001 | 8:46 a.m.

Willie Stewart has no shortage of catchy storylines.

He's an undefeated fighter making his main-event debut who is also a UNLV student and a Marine veteran who spent eight months in Desert Storm.

A transplant from Michigan who has lived in Las Vegas since 1997, Stewart is a 30-year-old southpaw who has at least one additional focal point as he heads into his Saturday super middleweight fight with Vitaliy Kopytko at the Stardust: He's under the gun.

"I told him this is a chance to prove himself in a main event, but I also told him he's still an unknown and we're not going to babysit for him," said Stewart's promoter, James Pollins, who is making his own debut with a Stardust card that will be held in the casino's 2,505-seat pavilion.

Stewart, 15-0 with eight wins by knockout, says he's up to the challenge.

"I don't feel the pressure, I feel the opportunity," he said Tuesday before working out at Johnny Tocco's Gym. "It's an opportunity for me to shine and to show people what I've got.

"(Kopytko) is supposed to be a tough guy, so it'll be a decent fight, I'm sure. But that's what boxing's all about; I wouldn't be motivated if there wasn't a challenge in front of me."

Kopytko, a native of the Ukraine who currently fights out of Detroit, is 19-4 with eight KOs but has clearly faced a higher caliber of opponent than Stewart. Two of Kopytko's losses were to world-ranked fighters, Bruno Girard and Howard Eastman, and a third was to Richard Grant, who upset the ranked James Butler last Friday in New York.

Stewart has no prominent names on his ring resume and very few are even recognizable. While he has been active and will be fighting for the fifth time this year, he said the toughest man he has faced was the unheralded Tony Robinson two years ago.

"He's probably a step up for me," Stewart said of Kopytko. "He's got a lot of experience."

Kopytko, who has trained with the heavyweight Klitschko brothers in the Ukraine, is also said to have had 185 amateur fights.

Stewart, before he entered the Marines in 1994, had one.

"Boxing kind of crept up on me," he said, tracing his indoctrination to the sport to a series of Marine Corps "smokers" in which the participants "put on their head gear and gloves and went at it."

But he was proficient enough at it to have won the Camp Pendleton (Calif.) base tournament, which led to an assignment that allowed him to concentrate on boxing during his final year in the military. Shortly after he was honorably discharged, he moved from Kalamazoo to Las Vegas.

"I didn't know anyone here and I knew better than to say 'Now you've got to help me,' " Stewart said. "But I knew I had what it takes inside, and through word of mouth and training at different gyms I was able to meet some people and get some fights."

Pollins became Stewart's manager, a position he has since relinquished to Luis Tapia while retaining his role as the fighter's promoter.

"He's a very slick southpaw," Pollins said. "He works hard and is very intense and dedicated."

He matched Stewart with Kopytko in part to see what his man has.

"It's a great test," Pollins said. "Neither fighter knows much about the other, and both need the win."

In Stewart's case, a win is essential.

"I'm patient and good things come to those who wait, but every time you step into the ring you're taking a chance," he said. "I'm predicting a win and I want to stop him, and I know I have to look good if I want to advance to the next level."

The next level includes being ranked and, perhaps, a shot at one of the 168-pound champions, which currently is the relatively unimpressive lot of Eric Lucas (WBC), Byron Mitchell (WBA), Sven Ottke (IBF) and Joe Calzaghe (WBO).

"They're kind of dull," Stewart said. "I'd like to bring some spark to the division."

Pollins said a title fight "is workable in a year or so, but, in reality, we need to look at how he does in this fight first."

As if Stewart needs additional motivation, he can call on the inner strength that allows him to attend UNLV as a social-work major, care for a six-month-old son, and observe the current war in Afghanistan in the context of a veteran who knows what it's like to serve in a distant forum.

"I learned a lot being in the Marines and Desert Storm," Stewart said. "I was in combat for eight months over there and saw a lot of things. Some guys in my unit will probably never be the same, but I try to look back at it as part of my life.

"I appreciated the experience and felt touched when the Marines landed in Afghanistan the other day. I know what they're going through."