LAS VEGAS - It's rare that a nontitle fight heads a boxing card, but tonight's bout between heavyweights Wladimir Klitschko and DaVarryl Williamson will do just that.
Despite the presence of IBF title fights between Verno Phillips and Kassim Ouma (for the junior middleweight belt) and super-middleweights Jeff Lacy and Syd Vanderpool, the appeal of heavyweights will top the Showtime production.
Klitschko will be fighting for the first time since his puzzling WBO title fight loss to Lamon Brewster in April. Klitschko hit Brewster with everything he had and then ran out of gas and was knocked out in the fifth round. His camp later made bizarre claims that he had been drugged.
"It was not easy for me to handle getting upset in April," Klitschko said. "There were a lot of circumstances that were there, but I have had enough time to put it out of my mind. It is in the past."
Williamson won an unimpressive decision over Eliecer Castillo at the Florida State Fairgrounds in April and has fought at 220 pounds or more just twice. Klitschko fights around 245. But Williamson hopes his skills make up for Klitschko's weight and power advantages.
He certainly has no problem with confidence, comparing himself to five of the game's legends in responding to a question about his style.
"A lot of people say that I have a right hand like Tommy Hearns," he said. "Maybe I have some movement like Sugar Ray Leonard. And maybe I have the heart of a guy like Marvin Hagler. I am kind of a mixed breed, mixed with a lot of different fighters. With Ali, a little bit of Foreman power. ... I am a boxer puncher that is hard to hit."
MAKING A CHOICE: Tonight's Gary Shaw-promoted card will have some competition, even if Felix Trinidad is making his comeback - after a 29-month retirement - across the country at Madison Square Garden.
The Trinidad- Ricardo Mayorga fight, an HBO pay-per-view production, will be shown on closed circuit at three rival casinos and one gentlemen's club.
TV STAR: A television crew from the A&E network has been following Lacy all week, filming for a documentary series about Caesars Palace. One of the episodes will focus on tonight's fights and Lacy's preparation for Vanderpool.
"It's been pretty cool," Lacy said Wednesday. "But I told them it was time for me to focus, so they were going to have to back off a little."
