By Michael Amakor
May 28th, 2005 – Germany’s Luan “The Lion” Karsniqi knocked out NABA Heavyweight and WBO NABO Heavyweight Champion Lance”Whoopi” Whitaker in the sixth round to become the mandatory challenger for the WBO Heavyweight Belt currently held by Lamon Brewster at the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle, Stuttgart in far away Germany.
Whoopi who was the number one ranked WBO contender before this bout usually talks a good game, and for this fight he went the extra step by hiring the services of Steve”Crocodile” Fitch – Mike Tyson’s former sunglassed military style, loud mouthed, trash talking speaker to add to the intimidation quotient of his entourage. Whoopi appeared to be in shape as he worked out for the press in the pre-fight hype as the Crocodile repeatedly predicted the destruction of the Lion to all. Whoopi backed up by the threats of his entourage and a crocodile even refused to shake hands with a vilianized Karsniqi who pushed him igniting a scuffle that nearly degenerated into a laughable riot with Whoopi threatening “I’m gonna knock him out today, I’m not gonna wait “til tomorrow, All these antics built up our expectations for a great long fight.
The bout was a stark contrast to all the Whoopi pre-fight braggadio as a seemingly angry Krasniqi comprehensively out-boxed him through the first five rounds before unleashing a right cross to the head in the sixth round that put Whoopi flat on his back for the first time in his career. We all stared in horror as Whoopi was unable to raise his 253.5 pound, six feet foot eight inch frame from off the canvas forcing the referee to halt the contest at the 2.33 minute of the round. Amazing.
Prior to this fight not much was known about the German since he has restricted most of his campaigns across the pond in Europe. To his credit he is the reigning European Heavyweight Champion and has so far amassed a record of twenty seven victories, suffering only one defeat and a draw. This victory against a high caliber veteran like Whoopi has finally showcased his ability on the world stage and catapulted him into the seventh ranked heavyweight in the world slot according to Boxrec.Com,
A review of his record shows decision wins over vaguely recognizable fighters like Sanil Sam Samil, Julius Francis and a draw against Timo Hoffman. Most boxing fans are going to place him as a favorite to dethrone Lamon Brewster for the WBO Crown but boxing experts should be wary of jumping on this bandwagon as ramrod stiff European style fighters are extremely prone to American uppercuts. His true pedigree will be revealed after the Brewster fight- That is if the fight even happens.
Punch On
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
