By Michael Amakor | November 2004
On Dec 4 “The Nigerian Nightmare”Samuel Peters challenges Jeremy “Half Man Half Amazing” William for the vacant NABF Heavyweight Title at the Mandalay Bay Arena in Las Vegas on a Showtime Boxing fight card featuring other sensational fights
The 24 year old Samuel Peters was a quarter finalist at the 2000 Olympic games and currently sports an unbeaten record of 20 victories with no losses and is being hailed in certain quarters as one of the next great Heavyweight. His demeanor and rising contention in the heavyweight division may remind you of another great potentially great Nigerian Heavyweight “The President” Ike Ibabuchi who crushed Chris Byrd and David Tua on his nightmarish run for the title which was suddenly derailed leading him to jail cell over a rape conviction.
A close look at his resume shows that he knocked out Dale Crowe in brutal fashion for the Vacant WBC Youth Heavyweight Title in the 4th round, however his inability to kayo Charles Shufford and Jovo Tukov in successive bouts in addition to the journey men on his resume has made some boxing experts understandably skeptical about his punching power which is a necessity to be an intimidating force in the heavyweight division.
The only way to temper the rising cries of the critics is to prove it in the ring against Half man Jeremy Williams who was one of the greatest amateurs in US history winning the National Golden Gloves championship in 1990-91, the U.S. National champion in 1989-90, and the U.S. National Under-19 amateur champion, he was also the U.S. National Junior Olympic champion in In 1988. He launched his professional career with much fanfare back in 1992 enroute to capturing the WBC Continental Americas Heavyweight Title then lost it to Larry Donald in 1994 regained it again in 1995 against Quinn Navarre but lost his chance at the highly respected WBO Heavyweight Crown when he was knocked out in the 3rd round by Henry Akinwande.
Since then his career has been less than Amazing and he has been fighting in the shadows of the division losing to Maurice Harris, Brian Nielsen and even going to a draw against Al Cole exposing his lack of durability and further distancing himself from Title shots.
Jeremy although not an underated fighter may be poorly managed but this fight represents a chance to showcase his skills and the Nigerian Nightmare may have taken on more than he chew, but his trainer thinks differently which may be just as well if he is that good. It is better to throw him in there right now than baby him into a defeat much later down the road.
It will be interesting how the young somewhat inexperienced Nigerian Nightmare will fare against the ever confident Amazing “I will beat them all up” Jeremy Williams.
May the best man win
May the Best Man Win
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.
