Thursday, June 27, 2002 | 9:06 a.m.
Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4084.
The opportunity to do what no man has done before -- knock out Ray Mercer -- is foremost on the mind of Wladimir Klitschko as he prepares for their Saturday fight in Atlantic City.
Klitschko, 27, is 38-1 with 35 knockouts and is looking to add to his reputation at Mercer's expense. HBO will televise the scheduled 12-round heavyweight fight in which Mercer is a decisive 8-1 underdog.
Mercer, 41, is 30-4-1 with 22 KOs and has the distinction of only once being off his feet, that when he took a knee during a 1995 fight with Evander Holyfield.
"He has a lot of experience, he has a big punch and nobody has knocked him out," Klitschko said in comments relayed from his training camp. "The most important thing for me in this fight is a positive result.
"A knockout is the best thing, but I don't want to concentrate on a knockout. But if I can win by knockout, then nobody has any questions and the people will know who the best man is."
Mercer has not had a fight of any consequence since a close decision win over Tim Witherspoon in 1995. In his last six fights, spread over five years, Mercer has won each by knockout without having faced a quality opponent.
The 1988 Olympic gold medalist, Mercer had notable wins earlier in his career over Francesco Damiani and Tommy Morrison. His four losses were to Holyfield, Lennox Lewis, Larry Holmes and Jesse Ferguson.
"I'm a little older now, so this is probably the toughest fight of my career," Mercer admitted. "This is my last chance at the top (and) I'm really hungry."
Klitschko, whose brother Vitali fights Larry Donald July 20 in Germany, is a native of Ukraine who is also a former Olympic gold medalist and who is being positioned for bigger fights in the near future. A bout with Lewis or against the John Ruiz vs. Kirk Johnson winner could materialize.
Hence, there is a need for Klitschko to look good against Mercer.
"In Europe I made a lot of money, but I'd hit a certain level," he said. "Now I come here (to America), stay here, fight here and speak English. The European market is a big market but if you have one market, two is better."
Klitschko fought Charles Shufford last August in Las Vegas and had been scheduled to fight Mercer last December until the latter was cut in a minor bout.
Diaz has worked for the cable network HBO, handling the Spanish versions of its pay-per-view telecasts, and last year he worked alongside Max Kellerman as an analyst on ESPN's summer boxing series. This year he's back with ESPN but in a modified role, conducting taped and live interviews.
"It's 10 weeks (through August 1) and it seems like a very good situation for me," Diaz said. "ESPN felt my strength was in interviewing boxers and they're expanding my talents in this new role. They know, by my being in Las Vegas, that I'm familiar with boxing and have access to a lot of big-name fighters, plus I have a good rapport with fighters and can speak Spanish.
"When they asked me about it I didn't have to think twice. When ESPN makes you a proposal like this, you follow what they say."
Diaz said both KTNV and its sports director, Ron Futrell, were completely supportive.
"Ron's cool with it," Diaz said. "I'm Scottie Pippen to his Michael Jordan. And the station realizes it's good exposure for them at the national level, plus being with ESPN helps me get some interviews that I can use here."
Occasional Las Vegas resident Frans Botha, 44-4-1, has taken a July 27 fight in New Orleans with fellow heavyweight Cliff Etienne, 24-1. ... Roy Jones Jr. isn't happy about fighting No. 1 challenger Clinton Woods -- still tentative for July 13 at a site to be determined -- and said so in a release distributed to boxing media. "I'm not proud to be fighting Clinton Woods," he said. "I don't really know him and I know the rest of the world doesn't know him. I'm disappointed I have to do this but at the same time you can't fault him for wanting his shot at the title. He has been waiting about two years now. So if I don't do it, then I either lose my title or I face a lawsuit so I have to fight him." Jones is the undisputed light heavyweight champion. ... No Boxing Notebook next week as it's July 4 and the Sun does not publish.
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