BORN TO FIGHT HERE TO FIGHT

Sometimes the mandatory contenders put forward by the various world sanctioning bodies leave a lot to be desired. Not so in the case of William Abelyan, who challenges Scott Harrison for the World Boxing Organisation featherweight title in Glasgow on 6 March.

Born in Armenia, William the Conqueror, as he calls himself, moved to California with his parents when a youngster and has fought his way through the ranks with some tough fights against tough opponents, including bouts taken at short notice.

He has a record of 24 wins, four losses and a draw (12 opponents halted) but in effect learned on the job after a brief amateur career.

At the age of 25, he has matured into a classy, speedy boxer-puncher with southpaw moves not dissimilar to those of Naseem Hamed. Not surprising, as he says he was a fan of Hamed when the Prince was blasting out opponents. “I saw about 20 of his fights [on TV or video] back in the day,” he said over the phone from Las Vegas, where he now lives. “I hoped to fight him one day. But no more. I call him Princess now.”

There is, as you might have gathered, a brashness and even arrogance about Abelyan, who has not lost in four years.

“I’m a full-time boxer and I take it serious, no hobbies, nothing but boxing,” he said in his heavily accented English. “I get up at four in the morning to run. I train three times a day. In the gym I don’t talk to no one, just do my business. My friends and family love me but when I’m training I just stay home, I don’t see no one, I don’t let no one come bother me. After the fight I can go see my family and friends and celebrate.”

Although a clear underdog he seems totally unconcerned about what Harrison brings to the fight. “I don’t care about him,” he said. “He’s a big guy, he has that Mexican style, but he’s going to have a hard time with me, even in his hometown. I saw his fight with Wayne McCullough. With me it’s going to be a totally different story.

“These fighters who are big, strong and they come to me — I love that, you know? He’s not gonna mess around with me like he did with McCullough, Medina. I’ll play with him.

“I know he’s big, I know he has a punch. I know he overpowers people. But not with me — it will be a totally different game.”

Abelyan seems to have been somewhat thrown in at the deep end by his original management in the Los Angeles area but is now settled in Las Vegas where his manager is Armenian businessman Garnik Khachikian, 52, who owns a liquor-manufacturing company but says: “It’s ironic, but I don’t drink at all.”

Garnik, as he is universally known in Las Vegas boxing circles, said from his Las Vegas office: “I used to box as a teenager. With me, I am not in boxing for the money, I just want to make some champions.”

He believes he has a champion in Abelyan, who has already won what could be called a minor title, the WBO’s North American belt.

Although Abelyan seems to be the proverbial man of few words, his strong-mindedness comes across.

“When I was a kid I liked to fight, fighting outside [the ring] with people, you know — too long a story,” he said. “But now it’s different. The ring is my house.

“I was a kid when I came to America, about nine. I did, like, 20 amateur fights, but I wanted to box pro”

His last defeat came when he suffered a one-round loss to Victor Polo, the much more experienced Colombian who has boxed for two world titles. He said: “I was sick, I had stomach problems. He didn’t hurt me at all but my stomach was killing me. I stopped fighting because I couldn’t take it any longer. But that was with different management, different trainer. Different story.”

Abelyan’s breakthrough fight was probably his eighth-round win over Shamir Reyes, an unbeaten New York-based Puerto Rican southpaw who was being promoted by Don King at the time, in August 2000.

I was at ringside that night at the Paris hotel and casino in Las Vegas and Abelyan surprised me in a fight that was made for Reyes to win. He floored Reyes twice. Normally a fast, flashy fighter, Reyes was never given the chance to use his slick moves. “When I fight I don’t care if it’s a left-hander, a right-hander, it’s all the same to me,” Abelyan said of that fight. “When I walk inside the ring, I’m the boss. I just do my thing. I do my business and I knock them out.

“My main strengths are combinations and timing. I’ve got the punch but I never go for the knockout. The knockout comes when you do your stuff.”

His unanimous decision over former featherweight champ Guty Espadas in August 2001 at the Plaza casino hotel in downtown Las Vegas confirmed that Abelyan belongs in world class. A late substitute, he floored Espadas twice and comprehensively outboxed him despite suffering a cut over the left eye.

“I took that fight on three days’ notice,” he said. “I knew he was a puncher — like a bully, you know? — but I did my stuff, movement and boxing. When I got cut it was from his elbow. But if I get cut, I get cut. It doesn’t bother me. I love blood. You have to have a weapon to hurt me inside the ring.

“I’ve taken a fight at 10 days’ notice, three days’ notice. They’re all tough. Orlando Soto [a veteran two-time world title challenger from Panama] was a good fighter, good chin. My eye was swollen from a quick head butt, but I knocked him out [in the 10th round].”

Abelyan is trained by Don House, 42, a former army boxer under top trainer Kenny Adams. He was an assistant trainer with Adams but prefers, he said, to work with just one or two fighters at a time. He has been training Abelyan for four years and said that he first took notice of him when the then up-and-comer sparred with former featherweight champion Freddie Norwood.

He said: “I thought: ‘This kid’s got talent, I can do something with him.’ He’s very fast, he’s as elusive as Prince Naseem, he hits as hard as Freddie Norwood — if not harder— and he’s got the heart of Arturo Gatti. So if you watch this guy, he’s got a lot of fighters built into him.

“William’s very easy to work with. He does what you tell him. Champions are built in the gym — fight night’s the easy part. I watched Scott Harrison against Wayne McCullough and, believe me, Scott’s very ordinary. He’s a basic boxer, and he’ll be right in front of you all night. William’s very elusive, hard to catch up to, so it will be a chess-match type of fight. They say Scott’s big, but he still has to make 126 pounds. Weight’s not a problem for us; William could box at 122 pounds [super bantam].

“William will be in great shape. He works 25 rounds a day in the gym, but I don’t believe in a lot of sparring. Just a week of sparring in the gym. There’s a lot of fights, taking them at short notice, he didn’t even have time to spar. I don’t want to kill him in the gym with three, four, five weeks of sparring — I don’t believe in all that. Most fighters get hurt in the gym.

“Once you get to the level where William is right now, he knows what he needs to do in the ring. Our job is to tweak things here, improve things there, clean things up [regarding technique].

“We’re going to get Harrison outta there, and I predict we’re going to get him out inside of eight rounds.”

Abelyan isn’t willing to go quite this far. “I’m not going to say on the phone what I’m going to do,” he said, “but when I step in the ring, everyone will see it.

“I’m a fighter. I don’t fight only for myself, I like to make happy my fans. All the fans.”

But the Scottish fans won’t be happy if he beats Harrison, will they?

“They will like me,” he said, ever the assured one. “They will like me a lot.”

Fight preview in March issue