November 2004

30.11.04 – By Coach Tim Walker – tpwalker@hotmail.com – American based boxers don’t like traveling abroad to fight. The perception of questionable decisions and anti-American crowds leads fighters to believe that the deck is stacked against them. Whether it is perceived hostility or not, bouts frequently end in decisions that favor home town fighters. It happens abroad and it happens in the states. Still there maybe just enough room for Daniel “The Haitian Sensation” Edouard, the current USBA and WBA Fedacentro Middleweight Champion, to slip in under the home town radar and get a fair shake.On August 27, 2004 Edouard knocked out the highly favored Willie “The Gladiator” Gibbs on his way to stirring up fight of the year buzz, winning the vacant USBA middleweight title, and tossing himself firmly into the middle weight mix. He’s no stranger to fight of the year honors having previously received middleweight fight of the year acclaim for his 2003 bout with Miguel Espino.Daniel is being brought along the old fashioned way by fighting tough good fighters. In eighteen bouts he has fought six undefeated middleweight prospects. He is learning on the job and his lessons might prove to be too much for the rest of the middleweight field in the long run.Since the Gibbs win Daniel has been quietly planning his next moves and evaluating the middleweight landscape. The topography is thick with frontrunners such as Jermain Taylor and Felix Sturm, and hopefuls Troy Rowland, Jessie Brinkley, Chad Dawson, and Sechew Powell are working towards taking the next evolutionary step in their boxing career. These fighters, and a few others, make up a conglomerate of middleweights who have the looks, the skills, the appeal and the persona necessary to have tremendous crossover success. In the midst of a glowing resume, Daniel is again on the brink of separating himself from the middleweight field by doing something many of the prospects would not do. Daniel is taking his show on the road to Bayreuth, Germany to face Armenian born tough man Authur Abraham (14-0-0, 14 ko) who will be his seventh undefeated prospect. If Edouard’s last bout is any indication of the fireworks he posseses then the German boxing fans are in for a real treat. Abraham’s greatest win comes over middleweight fringe world title contender Nader Hamdan. Hamdan mustered 32 wins against somewhat mediocre competition before losing to both Sam Soliman and Abraham within his last seven bouts. Why such risks? Experience and opportunity.Daniel has to build his reputation one boxer at a time. There is no better way to do this than by fighting good fighters and beating them in their backyards. Edouards may journey to fights but he is definitely no journeyman. In a career that spans months shy of three years he has fought in Connecticut, California, Nevada, Missouri, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York and the island of Haiti where he won the WBA Fedacentro Middleweight title. The mentality of taking on the best has its risks and rewards. The lumps and bumps are part of the risk and the reward is four showings on ESPN2 and two appearances on Showtime. With the exception of Taylor and Sturm, many of the other middleweight prospects have not been showcased in front of any national audiences.You can see the effects of this approach to match making beginning to manifest in Edouard’s approach to boxing. During hit bout with Willie Gibbs he endured and early onslaught of fire power but proved that he had enough knowledge and skill to weather the storm and KO the highly taughted Gibbs. Few if any of the other prospects would know what to do in that situation.Many say his upcoming bout with Authur Abraham is by far his biggest test. Still others think it should be one of his easiest fights to date. No matter what the outcome the lessons Edouard’s is learning will soon begin to play out on the rest of the middleweight field. For German boxing fans this will be a great contest.To learn more about Daniel “The Haitian Sensation” Edouard look him up on the web at www.haitiansensation.com.

November 2004

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