Peter brings raw talent, perfect record to ring

Dean Juipe

Thursday, May 13, 2004 | 9:35 a.m.

Samuel Peter doesn't have much to say, unless you're listening to his fists. Then his message comes in loud and clear.

The quiet slugger is 18-0 with 17 knockouts in a still developing career that he believes will lead to the heavyweight world championship.

Farfetched?

Maybe not, given his Olympic and amateur background as well as his documented prowess in the ring.

"I'm ready for anybody," the 6-foot-1, 240-pound transplanted Nigerian said Tuesday at the Top Rank Gym, where he's preparing for a fight with Charles Shufford that headlines a Cedric Kushner card Monday at Bally's.

Peter, who moved to Las Vegas as part of the professional contract he signed after the 2000 Olympics, is 23 and still regarded as a bit raw. But his KO credentials, even against the lesser opposition he has faced thus far, are as legitimate as the knockdown he administered to former heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman recently while sparring.

"Can't talk about that," Peter said, when asked about putting Rahman on the floor.

But others can and the talk in the gym is that Peter blasted Rahman in a headgear-less sparring session, and that Rahman's handlers and entourage were none too pleased. Peter was relieved of his sparring partner duties on the spot.

He'll try to do the same thing to Shufford, a lifelong Las Vegan, when they meet at Bally's in a rare Monday night fight in Las Vegas.

"He's a nice guy," Peter said of Shufford, when asked about his upcoming opponent. "He doesn't bother anybody."

Shufford is 20-5 with nine KOs and owns a victory against Lamon Brewster, who upset Wladimir Klitschko in a major fight here last month.

"A fight is a fight," Peter said of the likelihood that Shufford will try to extend him the fully scheduled 10 rounds. "You get in there and you have to adjust."

Adjustments have become second nature for Peter, who lives as part of what is said to be a significant Nigerian population in Las Vegas. Saying he "had to" move to Las Vegas as part of his contract, he calls life here "OK" while adding that he stays close to home and among friends.

Asked about the turmoil in his native country, Peter was almost evasive.

"There's no problem in Nigeria," he said, although this much is known: At least 500 people were killed in a rural town there last week and more than 10,000 people have died there in Christian vs. Muslim battles since 1999.

"People write things just to be writing," Peter said. "Where I'm from in Nigeria, it's peaceful."

Managed by Ivalyo Gotzev, Peter is known as the "Nigerian Nightmare" and for his relentless style, hand speed and power. Aside from perhaps still being uncomfortable with the media, he may have the complete package.

"Everything is fine," he said of his career thus far. "It's been a little easy, if anything."

If it has been easy it's because no one has pressed him in the ring.

"I'm a specialist," he said of his accumulated knockouts, and no other explanation is needed.