By Matthew Hurley

As fight fans continue to search in vain for one man to emerge from the heavyweight muck, American Calvin Brock is beginning to look like a viable candidate for the throne.  The problem with Brock is that he is not a murderous punching machine like Mike Tyson, he’s not a blood and guts warrior like Evander Holyfield and he’s not a relaxed, skillful technician like Lennox Lewis. 

However, he does nearly everything in the ring adequately and he does have some power in his fists.  That may not be saying much, but many very good fighters who became champions were never great at any one thing.  They were just good all around and it made them formidable.  As he progresses, Calvin Brock seems to be such a fighter.  Of course time will tell if he’s even that good.

Brock will fight Timur Ibragimov at Caesars Palace this Saturday night.  The bout will be broadcast on HBO’s After Dark Boxing program which, for the most part, dedicates its events to up and coming fighters.  At thirty-one years of age Brock would hardly seem an up-and-comer.  But such is the state of the heavyweight division that networks like HBO are looking everywhere to find a viable heavyweight to flagship the division.  For years HBO harped on the fistic merits of now IBF champion Wladimir Klitschko. 

So enamored was the network with the hulking Ukrainian that its broadcast team of Jim Lampley, Larry Merchant and future Klitschko trainer Emanuel Steward basically crowned him the champion in waiting while Lennox Lewis finished out his tenure.  Then, almost inevitably, Wladimir collapsed.  So in stepped his big brother Vitali, always deemed the lesser talented of the two, and the network jumped on his bandwagon.  Now, gone is Vitali, and the respective title belts that can be wrapped around a fighter’s waist were strapped on one guy for a while and then passed around until no one outside of diehard fans and boxing writers had any idea who the heavyweight champion really was.

As it stands now the four title belts, yes FOUR, are held by the oddest names ever to be uttered in heavyweight prize fighting since the portly and aptly named Tony Tubbs.  We have Hasim Rahman (WBC), Nicolay Valuev (WBA), Sergei Liakhovich (WBO) and the reinvigorated Wladimir Klitschko (IBF).  It takes fifty-seven letters to make up those four names and we won’t even count the acronyms of the belts they hold because those are just useless. 

Which brings us back to Calvin Brock, now a top ten ranked heavyweight contender.  Brock brings a steady consistency to a division that lacks any consistency at all.  He can be unremittingly dull in the ring and then explode violently as he did in the 6th round against Zuri Lawrence in a fight he was sleepwalking though.  That knockout, so complete and, quite frankly, frightening, made a lot of critics take a second look at the fighter known as “The Boxing Banker” – a moniker Brock assumed in light of graduating from UNC Charlotte. 

“I very well could have entered the business world,” he says in a low key tone.  “But this is where my heart is.  My dream is to become heavyweight champion of the world.”

Brock’s ascension to the top of the heavyweight ranks is indicative of his ring style, slow, almost ponderous, but with steady improvement.  He has also shown that inside his chest there beats a heart.  In a 2005 bout against the six foot eight Jameel McCline, then a viable contender, Brock hit the canvas but picked himself up, dusted himself off and proceeded to not only win the fight but win the rest of that very round.  It was the first real eye opener for the boxing public into what might lay ahead.  Then, three fights later, came the shocking one punch knockout of Zuri Lawrence on the undercard of the Shane Mosley – Fernando Vargas card.

That fight proved two things.  One, Brock can punch, and two, he has the unfortunate potential to stink out the joint.  For almost six rounds, in a fight being televised on pay-per-view, he did almost nothing.  It made you wonder if there was truly any fire in his belly at all.  But out of nowhere, when many people weren’t paying attention (this writer included), he ended matters the way the majority of fans of heavyweight boxing prefer – with one wicked punch.

“I did it with my left,” he says raising his fist and smiling.  “I showed I have more than the right hand.  But I have to say, I took my time because I knew he hadn’t been stopped before.  I knew I would find the opening eventually if I let him do all the work.  I knew I’d catch him.”

That may be true, or it may just be the bravado of a fighter who knows he might have just caught lightning in a bottle and may not be so lucky next time if he doesn’t work harder.  Whatever the case there does seem to be a palpable feeling that after that knockout Calvin Brock got the confidence builder he really needed to move up a few more rungs on the heavyweight ladder.  He seems even more focused now then ever.  A knockout like that can energize a fighter and mentally alter him for the better, particularly a heavyweight. 

It all remains to be seen if Calvin Brock will become the heavyweight the general public has been waiting for.  People who follow boxing with a passion would like there to be a big star heavyweight but don’t really find it necessary for the sport’s appeal.  There are too many terrific fighters in the lower weight divisions to keep them occupied. But the heavyweight division is the one that the mainstream media and people who don’t generally follow boxing are at all concerned about.  So it would be ideal if an exciting champion with skills and heart and the ability to clean out the division would come along.  It just might be Calvin Brock.  Or, he might just be another Tony Tubbs.