Thursday, July 31, 2003

By Chuck Finder, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Tonight, he goes topless.

No headgear.

No shirt.

Most of all to this 20-year-old, tonight brings the ultimate exposure: the professional boxing debut of Verquan Kimbrough.

	After 147 fights as an amateur, Verquan Kimbrough starts over tonight as a pro. (Lake Fong, Post-Gazette)

In addition to wearing no head protection and no muscle shirt to a fight for the first time after a decorated, globetrotting, nine-year amateur career, Kimbrough carries no record, no medals, no national reputation into the Grande Ballroom ring at Mountaineer Race Track & Gaming Resort. He's a rookie 126-pound boxer with an 0-0 mark until he faces Eric "Fast Hands" Burke (0-1) of Columbus, Ohio.

"I asked Scotty McCracken, Monty Clay and Paul Spadafora, and they say I'm going to love it with the headgear off," Kimbrough said, naming a few of the other pro boxers trained by Tom Yankello at the Beaver County Youth Boxing Club in Ambridge.

McCracken and Clay also are scheduled to fight on the 7:30 p.m. card today in Chester, W.Va.

"They say you can see everything. But, with the headgear on, your chin is still open. I've knocked out people with their headgear on. My chin was always open, and I never got knocked out. And I've been in 147 fights."

That's the thing about amateurs turning pro. Everyone wonders about the chin, the ability to absorb blows to the head. Kimbrough maintains that the only ones who need to wonder tonight are Burke and his foe's corner. After all, in winning six of his last eight fights as an amateur, Kimbrough scored his level's version of the knockout -- Referee Stopped Contest -- in half those victories.

"I want to show how I use my jab. I'm going to be jabbing all night," he said. "That's my favorite punch. I got a right hand that'll knock you out. But I got a jab that's crucial."

In two years, Kimbrough rose to marked-man amateur status at 132 pounds. He won the title at the U.S. Box-Offs in 2001, then swept the U.S. Championships and Box-Offs and the No. 1 ranking in '02. He traveled to prestigious international events in Hungary, Cuba, France, England and Ireland twice, even though he despised flying. This time a year ago, preparing for an amateur main event at Mountaineer, Kimbrough spoke about Athens and the 2004 Olympics before ultimately turning pro to challenge his gym buddy Spadafora for the lightweight title. So much has changed since then.

This spring, Kimbrough lost in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Championships, lost his ranking, lost his edge. The Olympics were too far off for his liking -- a commitment of four years. Besides, the Summer Games don't mean as much to a boxer's money-making future as they did years ago. So Kimbrough thought about turning pro, and Mountaineer CEO Ted Arneault agreed to become his benefactor and adviser, signing him to a lucrative contract that calls for Kimbrough to headline at least a dozen cards in the next two years at the track or other Mountaineer properties.

First of all, it took awhile to convince his parents.

"They're really behind me now," said Kimbrough, the youngest of six children. "More than before."

Kimbrough announced he was turning pro at the most recent fight in Mountaineer, a Showtime event July 3. About that time, Spadafora was announcing his abdication of his International Boxing Federation title and his rise to a higher division, from lightweight to junior welterweight. And then Kimbrough started making changes. He trained more seriously than before, had a religious rebirth and took off the headgear and climbed between the ropes.

"Right now he's on top of his game," said Yankello, who put him through six sparring sessions totaling about 28 rounds. "He's rededicated himself. He really wants this. He's taking training as hard as I've ever seen him. It's not just training in the gym, either. He's working hard on the outside, eating right and getting in bed by 10:30. Used to be, I'd call him at 10:30 at night, and he wasn't even home."

"I hate when he calls me at 10:30 at night," Kimbrough added.

There will be more of that ahead. Kimbrough's camp -- Yankello, Arneault and promoter Greg Nixon -- aim to keep him around 126 pounds as long as feasible. They plan to put him in four-round fights like the one tonight five times, then move up to a like number of six-rounders and then the same with eight-rounders. They figure he could well have nine fights within the next year.

And that's just a beginning.

"He has all the attributes potentially to be a world champion," Yankello said. "I say that from my experience with Paul, and I've been around other champions. I believe with Verquan's potential and his attitude, he can become not only a world champion, but a superstar.

"Sure, when he takes that headgear off, that'll be the first time. You always have anxiety. But Verquan has great defense. Like Paul. I always knew that Paul had a chin; he just never got hit there. I think Verquan's just like that. He's elusive, and he's going to be hard to hit."

Two-thirds of the 750 tickets for the Grande Ballroom were sold as of Friday. Seats for $30 and $20 were available through Ticketmaster and Mountaineer. It's conceivable a standing-room-only crowd could welcome Kimbrough into his first pro ring, only 28 miles from his Aliquippa home.

"It's a nice little coming-out party for him," said Nixon, the promoter.

"I'm a whole new fighter; it doesn't matter what I did as an amateur," Kimbrough said.

"The amateur thing was getting old. Now I have something else that's pushing me. I want to start something now. I'm clean. Zero and zero."

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