By Thomas Gerbasi

For almost two years, the only thing on Sechew Powell’s mind was Deandre Latimore. That was understandable, considering that the St. Louis southpaw had handed Powell the first knockout defeat of his career in June of 2008, which in turn sent him plummeting from the mandatory contender’s slot in the IBF’s junior middleweight rankings.

Powell, stunned by the upset, got back in the ring four months later, and was simply biding his time with ‘keep busy’ bouts while he chased down a redemption that seemed so far away.

“The only thing I wanted was to get Latimore back in the ring, and it was the hardest thing ever,” said Powell. “It reached a point where I wasn’t interested in anything else.”

But in December of 2009, what the Brooklynite calls “a freak accident” took place when the Czech Republic’s Lukas Konecny was dropped from a new mandatory bout against Latimore, leaving the door open for Powell, the next leading available contender to step in.

“For whatever reason, this guy fell out of the ratings and I was the next guy in line,” said Powell. “It landed on the table and they had to take it or leave it. And when it comes to a title shot, who’s gonna leave it? So him (Latimore) and his team kinda got put in a pickle where everything was on the line and it would have showed a lot about him if he turned down that shot. So I think for the betterment of his career, he knew he had to go through with it. And I finally got my rematch.”

And he delivered when it counted, drilling out a 12 round majority decision victory in March of this year that earned him the mandatory challenger’s spot again. But if this sounds like revisionist history, there is a moral to the story and not just that it’s admirable to see fighters conducting themselves like fighters when it comes to getting a little get back. But as Powell awaits his shot at the IBF 154-pound belt, the man holding it, Cornelius Bundrage, isn’t exactly swinging the door open for the fight to happen. And yes, that’s the same Cornelius Bundrage who suffered his first pro defeat to via a memorable first round knockout back in 2005.

“Redemption is something that I think all real fighters are looking for if they face defeat somewhere in their careers,” said Powell. “They want to show that they are who they say they are. This guy Bundridge says that he’s this kind of guy, but the truth is that he’s the guy that everybody sees is the one that’s scared to make the right move and afraid to do what’s right and that’s giving the mandatory challenger his shot.”

That may be what’s ailing boxing these days, chapter 3,454. We all know how mandatory title challengers are the bane of the sport’s existence, yada, yada, yada, and who can blame a hard-working fighter who, at 37, has finally won a world title and wants to a) keep it as long as he can, or b) get a big money fight out of it? But in this case, not only is Powell-Bundrage II an intriguing bout, but it’s the only one available to draw any real interest for Bundrage at the time. And if you need a little reminder, the first bout between these two junior middleweights on ShoBox was one of the most memorable ever on the series, as a double knockdown seconds into the bout was followed by a Powell knockout win. What promoter couldn’t sell that one?

“This is the problem with boxing,” agrees Powell. “Here this guy is the world champion and the fight that we had the first time has over a million hits on Youtube. With that being said, I don’t see why a promoter couldn’t make this fight a premier fight for a premium network like HBO or Showtime. He’s the world champion, I’m the number one contender in the IBF, and we are in better places than we were when we fought the first time around. So it kinda makes no sense. But I see what the problem is – he doesn’t want to fight. And if he did want to fight, I don’t see any problems with getting this fight done in a big way.”

So wouldn’t Bundrage want to get some payback against the first man to beat him and knock him out?

“The truth is that I’m so not shocked by it because all of things that transpired the first time we fought,” said Powell. “In a three day period, from the press conference to the weigh-in to the fight, I was able to learn so much about him as a fighter and as a person, and I think he exposed himself to me in such a vulnerable way that he knows that I’ve seen every card he has in his hand, and I have his number. By the time the fight was over I felt like ‘man, this is one fighter, I’ve got his number.’”

Less than a year after the bout, Bundrage got put in everyone’s living room as a member of the cast of the second season of ‘The Contender,’ making it to the series’ semifinals. From there, he parlayed his fame into some high-profile fights, eventually hitting paydirt when he stopped Cory Spinks in five rounds for the IBF title. Powell hasn’t fared so well on the slow road to glory, going 10-2 since beating Bundrage, but losing key bouts to Latimore and Kassim Ouma. But the talented 31-year old has kept a cool head, trusting that eventually he’ll get his shot without resorting to the antics some fighters use to get attention.

“I wouldn’t be true to myself and I’ve always felt that empty barrels make the most noise,” he said. “My attitude towards boxing was always to let your hands speak for you, let your performance speak for you. But the problems I’ve been having is getting the better guys in the ring to perform against. The only way to be considered one of the best or the best, you’ve got to be fighting the best guys around you, and it’s been such a hard time getting these top guys in the ring with me. They don’t want to fight, and they look at me as high risk, low reward. Hopefully that will change soon once I get my shot at the belt.”

Luckily, Powell will get his shot within nine months via IBF rules, but that doesn’t really help a fighter who needs to keep his timing sharp while staying busy. Out of action since the Latimore rematch, “The Iron Horse” will return to the ring on November 19th in Framingham, Massachusetts against the dreaded TBA. He’s been down this road before – so don’t expect a repeat of the first Latimore bout, regardless of who he faces in the ring that night.

“I made the mistake before of looking too far into the future,” he said. “I’ve been the number one contender for the IBF before, I fought two fights, and I was on a little run, waiting for my championship fight and I’m kinda expecting these guys to fall into place. And with Latimore, me and him did a training camp in Florida, we helped Jermain Taylor get ready for Kassim Ouma, and I had a chance to take a look at him and I wasn’t impressed. To my own fault, I totally underestimated the guy. I made the mistake of not being mentally and physically prepared for a fight of lesser magnitude, and it cost me everything. So now I’m back here and I’m learning from my past mistakes and trying not to make them again. You have to get up for everybody and you have to prepare yourself every time. That’s the attitude I’m taking for this fight on the 19th, making sure that I’m a hundred percent prepared, mentally and physically, regardless of the magnitude of the challenge, and I’ll move forward from there. Because there is no forward if I don’t take care of business on the 19th.”

Those are the words of a man who has seen it all in eight years in the pro game, has taken his lumps, and has lived to tell about it. He’s paid his dues, now he just wants what he’s earned. There’s nothing wrong with that, and if you want to know about Sechew Powell’s resolve to live in the moment, he won’t even think about something he’s been chasing since the first time he put on the gloves.

“I haven’t thought about it yet and I don’t even know what it would be like,” he said when asked if he’s pondered the actual night when he wins a world title. “I can’t even see that far into the future. Right now, being in the ring and putting it on the line for the belt is a stretch. I can’t even imagine to start putting into words the feelings I would have. This has been going on since I was nine years old – I’m 31 now. This has been a passion and fantasy of mine for many years and I can’t even imagine what that would feel like. I’m sure it’s gonna be an out of body experience.”