LITTLE BIG MEN

If you are Jermain Taylor you need to respect history and you best beware of the Little Big Man, Kassim Ouma.

Ouma will be a decided underdog in the opinion of most boxing experts when he sticks his 5-foot-8 inch frame between the ropes in Taylor's hometown to challenge the 6-foot-1 undisputed middleweight champion on Dec. 9 but Ouma can take some solace in one thing. Or in several things actually because past history within the division tells him the task he's facing is far from impossible.

Ouma is not only five inches shorter than Taylor but is at a seven inch disadvantage in reach, considerable problems against an opponent like Taylor, whose long arms stretch 78 inches fingertip to fingertip while Ouma's are only 71 inches. That difference cannot be minimized against a guy with a powerful and snappy jab who can do damage with it, but it can be overcome. Carmen Basilio, who was even smaller than Ouma, proved that against Sugar Ray Robinson. So, too, did Emilie Griffith, when he licked both Nino Benvenuti and Dick Tiger, who each outweighed him by nearly 10 pounds.

The hometown advantage can also be overcome and may well be overrrated because Carlos Monzon was an even bigger underdog than Ouma will be when he walked into the Palazetto dello Sport in Rome to challenge Benvenuti and James Toney was also seen to be at a decided disadvantage when he faced the undefeated Nunn in the champion's hometown of Davenport, Iowa in 1991 but he negated all the negatives by stopping him in the 11th round the night they met.

So, in the spirit of believing all things are possible, here are some of the best examples of the middleweight division's Little Big Men who overcame either the same kind of physical advantage Taylor holds over Ouma or the obvious dififculties of fighting a champion in his hometown, as Ouma will do on HBO's Championship Boxing show that night. In some cases both had to be overcome. Ouma will be glad to know, in some historic cases they were.

CARMEN BASILION VS. SUGAR RAY ROBINSON Sept. 23, 1957 Yankee Stadium - At 5-6 1/2, The Onion Farmer from upstate New York was a piece of steel the night he took on the greatest boxer who ever lived, the stylish, 5-11 Robinson. robinson had slickness, range and a five-inch reach advantage over Basilio. Basilio was in fact so small he drank a gallon of water before the weigh-in to try and bring himself close enough to the middleweight limit of 160 pounds so that people wouldn't think he was just a blown up welterweight going to the gallows. Robinson soon learned there was no truth to such a thought when he quickly found himself engaged in a brutal battle against a man who refused to back up. Although Robinson landed shots that had knocked out lesser men, Basilio walked through them to launch a furious body attack throughout the fight. When Robinson hit him low late in the fight in weary reply to the beating his ribcage was taking and then offered his glove in apology, he asked if Basilio was hurt. The seething Basilio slapped his glove away and said, "No, but do it again and see what happens.'' What happened was that Basilio won the middleweight title by split decision.

EMILE GRIFFITH vs. DICK TIGER April 25, 1966 Madison Square Garden - Griffith was only two fights removed from defending the welterweight title when he stepped in with the feared Tiger, who had nearly a 10-pound weight advantage as well as a three-inch advantage in reach on Griffith. In the ninth round that did Tiger no good because the wide-shouldered Griffith dropped him for the first time in his career. It was Tiger's first title defense after winning back the belt from the man who had taken it from him two years earlier, Joey Giardello, and he got far more than he expected from Griffith. To give you an idea of the disparity in size, one fight after losing the controversial decision to Griffith (17 of 22 sportswriters at ringside felt Tiger had won) Tiger himself moved up and beat Jose Torres to win the light heavyweight title while three years later, after winning and losing the 160 pound championship several times, Griffith went back down to 147 to unsuccessfully challenge Jose Napoles for the welterweight championship he once held.

JAMES TONEY vs. MICHAEL NUNN May 10, 1991 John O'Donnell Stadium Davenport, Iowa - For his first title fight, Toney went into the 6-foot-3 Nunn's hometown at a decided disadvantage not only in height but also in reach, reputation and with the crowd, who booed him lustily. For much of the night all those things seemed to conspire against Toney, who trailed by as many as eight points on the three judges' cards when the 11th round opened. Just before it did, trainer Angelo Dundee cautioned the undefeated Nunn, "You only got six more minutes. Don't get sloppy on me. Don't go reaching. You're too smart for this guy.'' As it turned out, Dundee was wrong. Toney dropped him with just over a minute to go with a nasty left cross to the chin and although the champion got up at nine his mind remained on the canvas. Soon his body rejoined it when Toney floored him a second time with a right hand that convinced Dundee to throw in the towel.

EMILE GRIFFITH VS. NINO BENVENUTI Sept. 29, 1967 Shea Stadium - In this rematch, the 5-7 1/2 Griffith tangled with the 5-11 Benvenuti and was, as in the Tiger fight, at a consdierable size disadvantage except that he had the upper body of a far bigger man. That allowed him to attack the slicker boxing Benvenuti, finally dropping him in the 14th round on his way to winning back the middleweight title by a majority decision in which two judges favored Griffith and the third saw the fight as a draw.

CARLOS MONZON vs. NINO BENVENUTI Nov. 7, 1970 Palazetto della Sport, Rome - Monzon was undefeated in 83 fights but a total unknown when he ventured out of South America for the first time in his career to face the vastly overconfident Benvenuti in the Italian's hometown. Upon Monzon's arrival in Italy, the Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport had a headline that read "Monzon, Ma Chi Sei?'' which meant "Monzon, who are you?'' Soon enough Benvenuti and the world learned who he was, which turned out to be one of the greatest middleweights of all-time. There was no size disadvantage like the one Ouma will face on Dec. 9 but there was the sometimes considerable problem of challenging for a title in the hometown of the champion. There is a long history of the difficulties that can cause. Boxing historian Mike Silver points out, "When you go into a champion's hometown your judges better be your fists. If Monzon hadn't cold-cocked Benvenuti with that great right hand he probably gets no better than a draw. That's how it is.'' Monzon went on to beat Benvenuti in a rematch and defend the 160-pound title a then record 14 times before retiring.

The history of such hometown upsets doesn't end there. Marvin Hagler went into England and stopped then champion Alan Minter in three rounds only to leave the ring with his spit bucker over his head to protect him from the bottles and coins being showered on the ring by angry Minter fans at Empire Pool, Wembley that night. In fairness, history has not been so kind to many welterweights and junior middleweights, as Ouma is, who have moved up to challenge middleweight champions of course. Same is true for the long history of challengers going into the hometowns of the champion and trying to win. But Kassim Ouma, the smaller man venturing into the hometown of the far bigger Taylor, who may well weigh 170 pounds by fight time because the weigh-in is being held the day before the fight, only needs one chance to win. History tells him not only that he has that chance but that it can be done because it already has been.