Sam Peter – Don't Believe The Hype

Sam Peter – Don't Believe The Hype 04.05.06 - By Lee Hayes: "Don't believe the hype...don't...don't...don't believe the hype" goes the 1988 Public Enemy classic song. He was the savior of the heavyweight division. Everybody had been waiting for the “next Mike Tyson” to come along and liven up the division. A fighter with explosive “one punch power”, who wasn’t afraid to mix it up. Peter seemed to fit the bill. He is enormously physically strong. He punches very hard with both hands. He even had a little amateur pedigree and, much like punchers of the past like Foreman and Tyson, Peter actually seemed to enjoy the idea of rendering all of his opponents unconscious. After his brutal highlight reel knock out of Jeremy Williams, leaving Williams basically fighting for his life on his back on the canvas, a reporter asked the “Nigerian Nightmare” Peter if he felt bad, or if he was concerned. His reply was cold and to the point, “I didn’t know him. We didn’t know each other before the fight, so why would I feel bad? It's not like I knew him.” Cold indeed. The problem was really always gauging Peter’s ability going forward because many of his opponents were at best, journeymen. Even Jeremy Williams, who was once a very good prospect -if an undersized one- had never really been considered much of a test in the heavyweight division. Not since about 1998 anyway. Basically, everything we knew about Sam was based on his brutal knock outs, and occasional struggles with relative nobodies to gain decisions. Because of the mirage we were being presented, the smoke and mirrors, we only saw Sam Peter the way he was so cleverly packaged by the Duva family. We were force fed propaganda about his punching prowess and really, not much else. The evidence, in the form of some very nice knock out wins over hapless journeymen, such as Terry Porter, Jose Da Silva or Taurus Sykes. Not exactly what I would call iron chinned tests that you could evaluate a punchers prowess on. Porter had already been knocked out seven times in his career. Da Silva was knocked out five times. At least Taurus “looked” like a potential step up in class. Then again, since his loss to Peter, Da Silva has managed to out box one guy, who had a 6-4-1 record. When the Duva's finally felt that Peter was ready to step up to the plate against Wladimir Klitschko, in September of 2005, it seemed the perfect fight to showcase what Peter did bring to the table, power, and take advantage of his opponents weakness. Chin and confidence. Yet Peter failed miserably. Once he finally stepped in the ring with a top 15 heavyweight, Peter's flaws became immediately apparent. He had less head movement than a First Nations totem pole. He looped his punches from the floor and swung from one corner of the ring across to the other side. In fact, he looked quite amateurish. He stumbled over his own feet, he seemed incapable of throwing more than one or two punches at a time, and most importantly, he had absolutely no plan B. It seems that the entire game plan for the fight was to simply hit Klitschko and watch him fall. Crazy enough, it made sense. Anybody that has followed Klitschko's career knows that he can be hurt by someone with power, and that he tends to panic when under stress during a fight. Indeed, Peter managed to put Wlad down three times in the fight, although not from legal blows. Peter wasted most of his energy and punch power in the fight by swinging with those wild right hands that appear to be designed to land behind the ear of his opponent, or dare I say on the back of the head. He does the same thing in every one of his fights. Most recently, the "Nigerian Nightmare" has fought two more journeymen on his comeback from the Klitschko debacle. First Robert Hawkins, who is a decent heavyweight, and it was understandable after seeing the ferocious beating that Peter absorbed, that his team wanted to put him in the ring with a guy who isn't known for his KO power. (Hawkins had scored all of 7 knockouts in 25 professional fights and having only scored 2 KO's in the preceding 6 years leading up to his fight with Peter.) Instead of a step up in class, team Peter was satisfied to put Samuel in the ring with 7'1 Julius Long. Long has sort of toiled amongst the lower level journeyman, and when he's stayed with those opponents, he's been competitive. But the facts are that he's never beat anyone who could hit like Peter, and Long's defensive skills are about limited to his chin (which has never been great, Long having been KO'd by Audley Harrison early in his career). Peter bulled his way in against Julius and scored the expected knock out. It was violent, and quick. Long going down hard near the end of the very first round. The problem is that Peter simply did the exact same thing, the exact same way he had been doing it early in his career. And against the exact same level of opposition. This insinuates that he's learned nothing from new co-trainer Jessie Reid. If team Peter is under the impression that they can just continue the hype machine until they end up facing another A or B level opponent, with the exact same lack of an alternate plan...they are sadly mistaken. Sure, he will be able to knock out average heavyweights and his power is sufficient to KO some top heavyweights. Mainly because head movement is not a staple amongst the +200 pounders. But without a plan B, and with extremely limited foot movement and boxing skills, Peter will inevitably find the same fate down the road. Incredibly, after beating Julius Long, Peter began calling out all heavyweights, particularly those with title belts. Even exclaiming that he would "destroy" the towering Ukrainian in a rematch. Evidence seems to indicate otherwise. He could still win a title belt, but it would have to be against the right opponent. Unless he actually starts working on his boxing skills, and tries facing C+ and B level fighters in preparation for a reign of "terror", Peter will never live up to the hype. Public Enemies "Chuck D." ends the famous song with the following words; We don't need it do we? It's fake that's what it be to 'ya, Dig me? Don't believe the hype...Don't...Don't...Don't believe the hype