By Keith Idec
Photo © Ed Mulholland/FightWireImages.com
BARRANQUILLA, Colombia - Ricardo Torres came to Atlantic City, two hours south of Kendall Holt's hometown, and established himself as a true threat at 140 pounds nearly two years ago.
Holt had hoped that he'd be the one to replace injured Italian contender Gianluca Branco as Miguel Cotto's opponent that night. HBO boxing executives wouldn't approve Holt as a substitute, though, and instead selected Colombia's Torres for a co-featured fight on a "World Championship Boxing" broadcast. HBO's Kery Davis was skeptical because Holt had been stopped in the first round against unheralded Thomas Davis barely more than a year earlier, so Holt had to accept a non-televised slot on the Wladimir Klitschko-Samuel Peter undercard at Boardwalk Hall.
The gifted fighter from Paterson, New Jersey, defeated Russian journeyman Vladimir Khodokovski by unanimous decision in their 10-rounder on Sept. 24, 2005, but didn't inspire confidence in producing a pedestrian performance. Holt half-joked afterward that his ordinary outing might've made Cotto's promoters at Top Rank Inc. choose him as Cotto's next opponent. Moments later, Torres, a 13-1 underdog who had never before boxed in the United States, dropped the popular Puerto Rican champion in the second round, and while that seemed like an undeserved knockdown, Torres had him hurt at least twice more in one of the most entertaining encounters of 2005.
Cotto came back to knock out Torres in the seventh round of that brutal brawl, but Holt (22-1, 12 KOs) never got his shot at one of boxing's greatest gate attractions because Cotto (30-0, 25 KOs) relinquished his World Boxing Organization junior welterweight title less than a year later to fight at 147 pounds.
With Cotto convincing more and more doubters of his pound-for-pound worth with each welterweight fight, it seems fitting that Holt's long-awaited title shot will come against Torres (31-1, 27 KOs), in Torres' hometown.
They'll meet Saturday night in a 12-round fight at the Jumbo Country Club in Barranquilla, a 2,000-seat venue that is just about sold out, despite the impoverished environment that surrounds the venue. The bout won't be broadcast in the United States, but it will be televised live nationally in Colombia, on free TV.
Holt has been a fixture on Colombian television since he arrived here Tuesday night, seemingly winning over some Colombian fight fans that from afar perceived him to be an arrogant American. The affable, 26-year-old contender has told anyone who will listen that he truly respects Torres' power and appreciates the hospitality of the Colombian people.
"I was doing a TV interview this morning," Holt said Friday, "and the guy tried to get me to say I'm going to kill Torres in Spanish. I told him, 'I'm not saying that. I'll come up with something else.' I'm not down here for all that. This is a business trip for me. I'm down here to win this title and go home a world champion. That's it. All I want is a fair shot. I've told the people here that I just want to be treated fairly, because winning this title can change my life in so many ways. Just let the best man win."
Holt, a three-time New Jersey Golden Gloves champion before he turned pro in March 2001, has been pleasantly surprised by the championship treatment he has received from Torres' promoter, Colombia's Billie Chams.
Holt and his handlers were apprehensive about coming here when Chams surprisingly won a purse bid on June 20 and opted to bring what has evolved into an enormous event to Torres' hometown, a coastal, industrial city of approximately 1.7 million people. They learned that Colombia's murder rate is the third worst in the world per 100,000 residents, just below Venezuela's and South Africa's. They also read that in recent years a staggering two-thirds of the world's kidnappings transpired in this third-world nation.
They were worried about unarmed robbery, too, when they found out that at least one of the judges could be at the very least subconsciously subjective in determining who wins close rounds Saturday night. That judge, Manuel Rodriguez, is from Barranquilla, and presumably well aware of Torres' popularity and social significance in his homeland. Another judge shares the same surname as the champion, but the selection of Puerto Rico's Jose Torres as another judge seems more embarrassing than anything, almost as if WBO president Francisco "Paco" Valcarcel went out of his way to make a mockery
of the selection process.
Chams, however, has assured Holt and his handlers that this isn't some sort of setup, that he should expect fair treatment Saturday night. From everyone except Torres, that is.
The 27-year-old Torres told Holt at a press conference Wednesday that, "You're going to have to kill me to leave here with this title."
While Holt made it crystal clear he isn't interested in that, it would figuratively kill him if he were still simply a contender when takes a three-flight, 12-hour journey back to New Jersey Sunday.
He hopes Saturday night will symbolize what he considers a long overdue payoff for a childhood decimated by his mom's imprisonment, which stemmed from a manslaughter conviction, foster care, group homes and an abusive relationship with his father, Barry Porter, which has since been repaired.
A single father of a 4-year-old son, Holt hopes that defeating Torres will warrant the six-figure purses he expected to make long ago, prior to his aforementioned lone loss to Davis (11-5-2, 7 KOs, 1 NC) in June 2004, knee and hand injuries that forced him to withdraw from two ESPN2 fights in 2006 and a promotional problem with Dino Duva that figures to land them in court later this year.
As Torres' mandatory challenger, Holt will make $45,250 for fighting Saturday night. Torres, as per the WBO-mandated 75-25 purse split, will earn $135,750. Holt earned roughly $5,000 more for easily out-pointing Greece's Mike Arnaoutis (17-2-2, 9 KOs) in an elimination match that secured his title shot on April 20 in Atlantic City. Torres topped Arnaoutis on Nov. 17 in Las Vegas by a widely disputed split decision to win the title Cotto surrendered.
"I know beating Torres can help me make the kind of money that I've always thought I deserved," Holt said. "But it's not just about the money. I'm ready to become a world champion and for everything that comes along with it. I've waited my whole life for this."
Keith Idec covers boxing for the Herald News and The Record in New Jersey.