HomeSCHEDULETRAININGLOU'S CORNERTICKETSVIDEOABOUT USCONTACTNEWS
  CLICK HERE FOR BIG FIGHT COVERAGE THAT INCLUDES PAST FIGHTS, ROUND BY ROUND COVERAGE AND OTHER GREAT FEATURES
News and
  Interviews
you can also follow us on facebook
Skip Scott: America's Next Heavyweight King?
 

Where is the next great American heavyweight?

 

Daniel Herbert talks to a big (in all senses) heavyweight hopeful!

 

That question has been vexing boxing fans for a few years now and won't be going away any time soon. Europeans might be happy that many current contenders originate from their continent, but no one can doubt that having a bona fide heavyweight threat from the USA would be good for the sport.

   One man who might fill the role is Skip Scott of Houston, Texas. At six feet, eight inches and 250 lbs, he certainly cuts an imposing figure. And with just one defeat in 15 fights (one No Contest, eight wins inside the distance) he is making progress.

   He is also an excellent advert for the sport - well educated, smartly dressed and as articulate as one would expect from a man who, until recently, earned his living as a mortgage broker.

   True, he's already 33 years old and so far his opposition has been ordinary. But he started boxing late and had just three amateur bouts before going pro.

   A big asset is Kerry Daigle of Lafayette, LA, who manages Scot while Daigle's wife's company, Keepunching Entertainment, promotes the fighter.  Add in former top heavyweight Lou Savarese as Scott's Houston promoter and you have the sort of backing that can really help a fighter.

   When asked about his upcoming fight at the Houston Club on September 29, 2011, Scott said: "I'm in great shape.  I've been sparring 8-10 rounds in the gym. I'm doing more cardio, longer rounds in the gym. I've been doing extra workouts.

   Scott reckons that so far everything is going to plan.  "My progress is going great," he says.  "When I turned pro I was more a fighter. Now I'm more of a boxer.  You have to learn how to fight as a tall fighter.  I'm a more complete fighter now.

   "I'm 6-8 and 250 pounds, but I can get away because I'm fast.  I move more like a middleweight. I move side to side.  I can fight inside too. When I go inside, I shorten my punches.  I've fought a few guys that were 6 feet 4, 6 feet 5.  They tried to box with me, but I went to the body and they lost interest."

   Asked about a timescale for moving into title contention, he gives an answer that betrays fierce ambition:  "In 2012 we're going to make a huge push. I see myself fighting top 20 guys, maybe even top 10!  Early next year I'll be ready to fight those guys.  We're being patient. My goal is to be heavyweight champion of the world, but we don't want to win the title and lose it quickly. We want to win, but we want to look good doing it."

   Thus far, he as figured only on local (Houston) television, but he would relish greater exposure.  "I love being on the big stage," insists Scott, who was a baby when give his name Skip by his grandmother (his given name is Herman, following his father and grandfather.  "Crowds don't bother me.  Kerry has been talking to big promoters and I'd like to fight in Europe."

   He doesn't see his advance age as a barrier, recognizing that big men traditionally mature late. He puts it, "As a heavyweight, you don't have to cut weight, don't have to drain yourself.  I take care of my body. When I was 23, I wasn't in the shape that I'm in now.  I reckon I have seven to 10 years left in boxing.

"I'm taking new supplements and I'm into conditioning. I don't overtrain. There's a lot of science involved."

Skip stared taekwondo at 10 and also did kickboxing.

"I had 85 fights and was ranked in the top few in the USA," he reveals.  "I have a black belt in taekwondo. It was good for my footwork, strength, legs and confidence.  I had only tree amateur boxing bouts. I went into the Kansas Ringside tournament and got all the way to the finals. I lost to a guy who'd had a lot more fights than me. That was in 2004.  (continued below)

"I know I wasn't ready to try for the Olympic team. It was very hard for me to get amateur fights. When they know you're 6-8 and 250 pounds, they don't want to fight you. I would go places and not get fights.  So I talked to a lot of people around me (and decided to go pro). I sort of learned on the job."

   Skip also did the usual sports for an American growing up.

   "I played basketball in high school and college. I love basketball. It's good for my footwork and lateral movement. I can play any position.  I played [gridiron] football in my early high school years.  I was growing at such a rate I was 6-4, 6-5, but no more than 200 pounds. I hadn't put enough weight on [to play gridiron football]. I didn't really put weight on until I was in my early 20s."

   Skip's pro debut didn't' go well as he was outpointed over four rounds by Aaron Lyons in February 2006.  But it proved a blessing in disguise.

   "That did me more good than bad. It showed me who I was as a fighter. It showed me I had to know how to relax, how to use my jab. I beat myself -- I threw too many punches in the first round. He knocked me down twice and both times I got up and hurt him.  I'd love to fight Lyons again. You know, I'm a huge Lennox Lewis fan. He lost twice and knocked both guys out in rematches. I want to do the same."

   It was 21 months before Skip's second pro fight, but there was a reason for that.

   "The next week [after losing to Lyons] I got back in the gym. At the time I was working for a company but it went bankrupt, so I had a few financial issues to sort out. When I was financially stable again, I came back."

TO BE CONTINUED...

 
LEARNING
SELF DEFENSE
On Saturday, October 23rd, Bobby Benton and I, along with our new Kickboxing instructor DeMarkus Jones, visited the Beacon Downtown to instruct some of the homeless women on how to defend themselves against the dangers of being alone on the streets.  
   The following article about "Learning Self Defense" was posted in the Sunday edition of the Houston Chronicle on October 23rd. It was a great opportunity and a very rewarding experience.
Knowing how to slip from an attacker's grasp and defending themselves can be a matter of life and death for homeless women in Houston.

Sylvia Courville, center, learns how to escape an assailant's choke hold from instructor Demarkus Jones.

   At least three were murdered in downtown Houston last year, prompting a shelter to spend Saturday morning teaching these vulnerable women self-defense skills, as well as arming them with whistles and flashlights. 

"I was enthusiastic about coming here because I knew that they were going to have some wonderful people who were going to show us some techniques on what to be aware of and how to protect yourself," said 56-year-old Sylvia Courville, who has been homeless since 2008 when she lost her job and Port Arthur home to Hurricane Rita.

"It's just a wonderful experience because it can save your life," she said.

Courville was one of 20 homeless woman participating in the women's safety workshop sponsored by The Beacon, a downtown shelter, and other community partners Saturday.

According to Beacon officials, the event was held in response to the murders of three homeless women in 2010. One of them, Carol Flood, was a client of The Beacon. Flood, 62, was found behind the YMCA building at 1600 Louisiana on Oct. 10, 2010.

Organizers wanted to protect those who are most easily preyed on.

"Imagine sleeping so vulnerable that you don't have anything to protect you. Everything you own is on your body, and you have to sleep," said Charly Weldon, executive director of The Beacon.

Most of the female clients at The Beacon were already in a delicate position before they lost their homes.

"A lot of the women are on the streets because they are leaving something that was unsafe. They were usually abused prior and so they are wanting to find a safe place," said Weldon. "They are here today because they are wanting to find a safer place."

Trainers from the Main Boxing Gym taught the women where to hit attackers and how to use their hair against them. More importantly, they wanted women to flee to public places and make themselves known. They were given flashlights and whistles to help.

"You have to let people know that you are there. That's when you're the easiest prey, when you're not checking out people," said Courville, who volunteered to show moves and lent advice to the other women.

Courville said she was almost attacked as part of a drug deal.

"It (attacks) can be anywhere," said Courville, who managed to escape because the assault was near where she was staying in Port Arthur.

The seminar was also held to motivate the women, "to have people value you as a person and to interact with people," said seminar organizer Chris Noble of Marnoble Computers.

"Think about how your life is and how you interact with people if you're homeless," said Noble.

Participants were grateful for the new skills.

One woman thanked Weldon and said that she wished she knew self defense before she was raped.

For most of these women, "they just want normalcy," said Weldon.

Oliver McCall Wins Big Over Damian Wills in Houston

By Pavel Yakovlev: 08.20.11

Oliver McCall pounded out a unanimous decision over hometown favorite Damian Wills in Houston tonight. The scores were 97-93, 97-93, and 96-94. The victory earns McCall the World Boxing Foundation International heavyweight title, and improves his record to 56-11 (37 KO’s). McCall is now slated to face WBA #12 and IBF #9 ranked contender Kali Meehan in an important eliminator in Australia two months from now. Wills falls to 30-3-1 (23 KO’s) as a result of the loss.

The 31-year-old Wills was widely expected to use his advantages in youth (15 years younger) and speed to outhustle McCall, who had lost two of his last three bouts. After a few competitive opening rounds, however, McCall used his superior punching power, physical strength, and greater ring savvy to assume the upper hand.

McCall’s strong left jab was a key weapon tonight. “In the middle rounds, I took control of the fight. I started hitting him with my jabs then. I busted him up. He was cut under his left eye, and he was cut over and under the right eye. He was also bleeding badly from inside the mouth,” said McCall. “Basically, he started off pretty aggressive, but I knew he wears down in the late rounds.”

According to McCall, “We traded…there were a lot of punches landed. But I could take his punches, and he couldn’t take mine. When I hit him, he got cut and swollen, and he had to retreat. If he didn’t retreat, I would have knocked him out. I had him severely hurt at least twice in the fight. He also underestimated my defense. 

He could punch a little bit, but I didn’t get hit with a lot of solid punches,” McCall continued. “He doesn’t like pressure. When I came on and hit him with power shots, he had to retreat and hold on.” Ricky Fisler, McCall’s manager, stated that Wills was hurt in the seventh, eighth, and tenth rounds. “Overall, I was confident, because Oliver got in a lot of power shots,” said Fisler. “We had him going in two or three rounds. Oliver won seven rounds out of it. I was a little worried about a robbery, but it didn’t happen.”

“I think Oliver was robbed against Cedric Boswell recently at the Hard Rock in Hollywood, and I was afraid of a hometown decision happening again,” explained Fisler.”Oliver did enough to beat Boswell. He hurt Boswell a couple of times, and blocked most of Boswell’s punches on his arms and gloves. So, if it happened in Hollywood, I thought it could happen here, too. But it didn’t. We won.” Interestingly, McCall himself was not worried about a hometown decision. “It did not cross my mind that I would get robbed by the judges,” he stated. “I had a feeling that they were going to be fair here. That’s a good thing. In between rounds, my corner was a little worried about a robbery, but I told them, ‘Look, I’m clearly winning the rounds. I’m busting him up.’" 

Wills’s gutty performance won praise from McCall and Fisler. “I got nothing negative to say about Wills,” said Fisler.”Oliver outclassed him, but he hung in there. Wills was game; he had a lot of heart. I respect him.”

In recent fights, McCall had entered the ring weighing well above 250 lbs, looking inadequately conditioned. Thus, many presumed that he lacked the motivation to prepare to tonight’s match. But the naysayers were proven wrong: McCall weighed 248 ¾ lbs tonight, more than ten pounds less than he weighed last March for Boswell.

“I’m pretty happy,” continued Fisler. “Recently Oliver had a little strain in his back from playing basketball, so he couldn’t run for two or two and half weeks. But he did well tonight. Now, we’re flying to Australia next and that fight will put Oliver back in the top ten. Kali Meehan will not be able to withstand Oliver’s pressure.”  Fisler is also interested in matching the rejuvenated McCall with other leading heavyweights. He stated, “I’d like to put a challenge out for anyone in the top ten, including Odlanier Solis and Chris Arreola. Personally, I believe Wills would have given both of those guys are really tough fight tonight.”

Regarding his future plans, McCall sounded focused. “I’m going to take two days off, then get back in the gym. I‘ll probably start my training on Wednesday,” he explained. “I’m going to be getting my weight down to the 230’s. I’m also going to focus on getting more sparring. I didn’t have too much sparring for this fight. I did have great sessions with Eric Molina in the week before the fight, but that’s all I had. Now, I’m going to get quality sparring consistently, and my training camp is going to be better structured. We got a fight eliminator against Meehan in sixty days in Australia. I’m going to be ready.”

McCall was the WBC world heavyweight champion in 1994-95. He won the championship in London, famously stopping Lennox Lewis with a single devastating right to the jaw. A year later, McCall lost the championship to Frank Bruno via decision. McCall has been boxing professionally since 1985.

A Night to Remember at the Houston Club

By Joseph Herron

News from Ballroom Brawl: In the boxing universe, a live event is incomparable.  The air is electric and the excitement is so thick you can almost cut it with a knife…especially when Heavyweights are in the Main Event.

The heavyweight division in recent years has lost a bit of its luster, but at a live card there is still nothing like the crack of a pure heavyweight hook to the jaw.  You can literally feel a heavyweight body shot in the back row…it is definitely something that every fight fan must experience.

On May 19th, Big Lou Savarese Promotions featured a 6 bout fight card filled with super featherweight drama and heavyweight action.

In the most exciting and drama filled bout of the evening, Featherweight Miguel Flores (9-0, 6KOs) continued his unbeaten streak, but not after experiencing some very rough moments.  Although being considered a very heavy underdog, San Antonio’s Rolando Campos (3-4, 2 KOs) showed up to win on Thursday night and took the fight to the undefeated prospect.  For the majority of the bout, both men stood toe to toe and traded shots in close quarters hurting each other numerous times and creating various shifts of momentum throughout the fight.

The major difference in the fight was the relentless body attack of Miguel Flores.  Despite being hurt in the first round, the 18 year old prospect continued to pound Campos to the body until the visiting fighter doubled over in pain, twice taking a knee in the third round.  Despite being down on all judges’ scorecards, “El Potro” Campos showed the heart of a champion and refused to raise the white flag.  He fired back combinations, striking the local fighter to the head and body while trying to mount a comeback.

Although the San Antonio fighter gave a very spirited and inspired effort, Miguel Flores was not about to be denied on Thursday night.  He finished the show throwing ferocious combinations to the body and to the head. 

Although Campos never conceded, the ref saw enough and called a halt to the bout towards the end of the fifth round.

Miguel Flores improves to 9-0 with 6 knockouts and Rolando Campos drops to 3-4.

In the main event of the evening, Big Steve “Freight Train” Collins closed the show with a brutal body assault against veteran pugilist Rubin Williams.  The 27 year old Houston fighter was simply too much for the journeyman and battered Williams around the ring for two rounds.  The 35 year old ring veteran refused to answer the bell beginning the third due to sustained injuries.

“The ref was telling him to throw back or he would stop the fight,” stated Collins. “He tried to throw while I was hitting him and I accidently got him on the inside of the arm and I think the doctor said that he might have torn his bicep muscle.”

“I knew something was wrong with him at the end of the round.”

Despite the early close to the evening,   Collins looked impressive, mounting a well rounded attack, which included a healthy dose of jabs, body shots, straight right hands, and wicked left hooks. 

So what’s next for the “Freight Train”?

“I’m just dispatching anyone who they put in front of me,” professes Steve.  “I would just like to encourage everyone to come out and see for themselves what I can do.”

With the victory, Steve Collins improves to 25-1 with 18 knock outs.

In other action, Heavyweight Skip Scott looked impressive in stopping Dennis Mckinney of South Carolina at the 1:58 mark of the fourth round and improved his record to 13-1 with 8 knock-outs.

Texas-City’s Fred Allen was in a very defensive 6 round battle with Chi-town Heavyweight, Theron Johnson.  The undefeated prospect had trouble getting inside on his 6’4” opponent.  Despite exuding great defensive skills, Allen had some trouble winning over the judges, but eventually did pull out a split decision victory of the tall, rangy Theron Johnson.

In his professional ring debut, Bahodir Mamadijonov looked spectacular against DeShaun Williams, busting him up with speed and ferocity for four rounds.  Originally from Uzbekistan, but now fighting out of Houston, TX, Bahodir roughed up Williams from pillar to post before the ref stepped in midway through the fourth round to stop the fight.  Bahodir is now 1-0 with 1 knock-out.

In the opening bout of the evening, Irish Glenn Williams defeated Tyrone Jackson in a unanimous decision.

After the crowd finally stopped cheering and started filing out of the beautiful Houston Club in downtown Houston, TX, one patron was overheard stating something that seemed to sum up the evening perfectly: “Big Lou sure can throw one helluva party!!”

Indeed!!

 
 
Savarese Promotions © 2011. All Rights Reserved.