Black Knight Elcock vows to ride out of Switzlerand with King Arthur's Crown by Tom Podmore Dec 7th 2007

Wayne Elcock has warned ‘King' Arthur Abraham he'll need more than help from his Knights of the Round Table to stop him taking the IBF world middleweight title back to England on Saturday night (December 8). The solid-punching Brummie (a 7/1 underdog) meets the undefeated German-based Armenian puncher (1-16 favourite to retain his belt) for a portion of the fragmented middleweight crown at the St Jakob Halle Arena in Switzerland and is desperate to get his hands on his fourth belt in four fights. Elcock has won the WBF International, English and British middleweight title belts in his last three fights (all in the Midlands). The International Boxing Federation title would be the cherry on the icing on the cake for the father-of-two. The mountainous, scenic Basle venue is no stranger to world title fights: Nicolay Valuev defended his WBA heavyweight title against American Jameel McCline (Valuev won in three, though due an injury to ‘Big Time's' knee) in January of this year. But Elcock won't care one bit about the mountains that surround the picture-postcard venue as he meets a rock-hard, rock-chinned banger who survived a badly broken jaw in one of his defences to punch-out a decision win. This is a fighter who is prepared to go to hell and back rather than relinquish the world title belt he worked so hard for. And his last defence, an eleven-round knockout over skilful countryman Khoren Gevor in Berlin (the Yereven-born man's adopted hometown), was spellbindingly brutal. Tall Gevor was almost decapitated by a sickening but artistically beautiful uppercut in the penultimate session of Arthur's fifth title defence. Khoren had his legs taken from underneath him – landing, unconscious, on his knees. It was a sickening yet fascinating sight. A pro for just over four years, Abraham has been moved swiftly and expertly by top German promoter Wilfred Sauerland and has delivered with wins with each step he has taken. He also shown heart and courage beyond the call of duty in some of his title defences. The Berlin-domiciled puncher is bull-strong, tenacious and owns a set of fast, accurate hands. He listens intently to advice from his experienced, worldly-wise corner team that have racked up hundreds and hundreds of world title fights between them. However, Elcock's corner (Paddy and Tommy Lynch) have taken fighters into world title attempts. Birmingham's Robert McCracken, who came up short against hard-hitting American counter-puncher Keith Holmes in 2000, being the most famous one. Is it their time to become world champion trainers? McCracken, now trainer to the likes of Howard Eastman and Carl Froch, feels his fellow-Brummie has the right ingredients to cook up an upset and become the first fighter from the Second City to win a genuine, recognised version of the world crown. "Abraham is a good fighter but he is far from invincible and can be beaten with the right tactics," said the Brummie, who will lead Howard Eastman into battle against unbeaten Irishman John Duddy on the same night. "It is not beyond him [Elcock winning] and I think he can do it despite Abraham being an excellent world champion." Although he's feared, It's not all plusses for the Capital-based champion. He displays many traits of a banger: flat-footed, a bit of a plodder, dropping his hands a fair bit and can be static. If Wayne can do what he did against Eastman – beat him to the punch with eye-catching rights – then he is in with a tremendous chance. But Abraham is a dangerous in every second of the fight – as was illustrated in his last defence against Gevor, though it does seem every man and his dog are writing off Elcock's chances before he even steps into the ring in Switzerland. Some are saying he hasn't got a chance. And that includes Wilfred Sauerland – who is already talking about unification clashes in the USA in the next 12 months. Elcock, however, impressed when unanimously outpointed former two-time world title challenger Howard Eastman last time out. Eastman, a long-time British, Commonwealth and European ruler, had his British title ripped away by the fired-up Brummie, who constantly tattooed the ‘Battersea Bomber' with rights. His record is littered with quality men beaten well: Yuri Tsarenko, Anthony Farnell, Steve Bendall, Lawrence Murphy, Darren Rhodes, Michael Monaghan and Eastman. But he knows that Abraham, with the exception of Eastman, is a huge step up from his other opponents. However, he believes he can accomplish what 24 other men (five in title defences) have failed to do – and ride out of Europe with the world title: "I know the Germans are super-confident and he looked as though he was very relaxed at the press conference in October. "They call him King Arthur but I can assure you that I will be like his enemy the Black Knight on Saturday night and give him and the partisan audience one hell of a shock. "I have been written off by everyone in Germany but I will the king, the new IBF world champion on Saturday. "He will need all of his Knights of the Round Table to help him as I am in the best shape of my entire career," said Elcock, 18-2 (2), a former English and WBU middleweight boss. "They have had a scan over my record and thought: ‘right, our man will walk through and slaughter him'. "Not many of my fights have been on the television so I have dropped off his radar. I doubt he will have seen my back-to-back, career-best performances against Bendall and Eastman. "The last time I fought on the television was against Scott Dann and I put in an absolutely shit performance that night," the Shard End middleweight candidly admitted of his last defeat (unanimous decision, Plymouth, 2005). "That said, the judges scores were ridiculous as I thought it was a lot, lot closer. I hope they [Abraham's team] have watched that fight or looked at the scorecards as they will think he is in for an easy night." Although former WBC world super-middleweight champ Richie Woodhall was born in Birmingham he was raised in Telford and Elcock is hoping to achieve what other Second City world title challengers (Pat Cowdell, Rob McCracken, etc) have yet to do – bring a world title home to Brum. The 33-year-old Birmingham born and bred fighter is also adamant that a win over Abraham would make him the best boxer ever to emerge from the UK's Second City, though it did dawn on him a few weeks ago that the task in front of him was huge. He said: "I am confident that I will be the best boxer Birmingham has ever seen with a win at the weekend. This is my big chance to prove it and carve my name into Midlands boxing folklore. "While people think its all talk and little substance on my part I can assure you it isn't. I read reports after Abraham had beaten Miranda and I thought he was superman after winning with such a severely broken jaw. "But Miranda would have comfortably won it if he hadn't have committed as many fouls as he did. His own stupidity threw the fight away for him. I won't be making any similar mistakes. "I'm 110 per cent certain I can do the job in Basle. I honestly wouldn't have taken the fight if I didn't think I had the tools to do it. "That said, I was running through Birmingham the other week and thought: ‘this bloke has won 24 fights with 19 KO's – this is going to be hard work.' But I have just beaten Eastman who had won 42 with 35 KO's in much better class than the German. "I'm not worried at all," said an ultra-confident Elcock. "He is a world-class fighter but the fear factor, which was missing against Scott Dann but was there against Eastman, is massive and that is good news. "My stomach has been whirling and churning for weeks and weeks," he said. "People can write me off and underestimate me but at the end of the fight they will all be saying: ‘where has he been hiding.' "It's going to be a great night for British boxing and I will be proud to play my part and add to Britain's ever-growing list of real world champions." Elcock weighed in just over 11st 4.5lbs today while Abraham weighed in at 11st 5.5lbs. Photo courtesy of Sauerland

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