STILL ON THE BACKSTRETCH

Prospects in boxing are like two-year-old colts in horse racing. They appear to have a world of potential, but only when tested do the best ones emerge.

by Nat Gottlieb

Andre Berto falls into this category. A near-unanimous, "can't-miss" welterweight, he has won all 16 of his fights, 14 by knockout, but has yet to beat the kind of top quality opponent which would allow him to pull away from the pack.

Six months ago, Sechew Powell was also a highly-regarded, unbeaten prospect with 21 victories, albeit rated several notches behind Berto. In August, Powell was tested -- perhaps a bit too severely at that stage of his career -- but the results are in the books, and he now has his first loss. Powell finds himself stuck in the pack, several lengths back from where he once was.

Boxing isn't mountain climbing, where one bad step can be disastrous, so Powell will get a chance at redemption when he fights a veteran of "The Contender" series, Ishe Smith, who also has lost just once in his 19-fight career. They will meet on a "Boxing After Dark" tripleheader on Feb. 17, which also features Berto taking on journeyman Norberto Bravo, and Paulie Malignaggi -- another top prospect coming off his first loss -- facing Edner Cherry.

Berto, who has been brought along very carefully by promoter Lou DiBella, had been scheduled to face a step up the ladder in tough veteran Ben Tackie, who had fought and gone the distance in losses to Kostya Tszyu and Ricky Hatton in championship fights. Three weeks before this fight, however, the Ghanaian encountered visa problems and was scratched, replaced by Bravo.

Although Bravo has just a 23-12-3 record, he is not an easy out. Bravo fought to a draw with Tackie in 2005, and this year won his first two fights on "The Contender" before losing to eventual series winner Grady Brewer.

Even if Berto makes easy work of Bravo, the fight is not without its significance for him. As a super prospect, Berto knows he is under pressure to do more than just win if he wants a shot at a championship this year in a division crowded with talent.

"Every fight from now on, it is extremely important that I look good," said the 23-year-old Berto. "This is a big opportunity being on HBO again, and I am not taking him lightly."

While no fighter would openly admit to taking an opponent lightly, Berto was literally bred to leave nothing in the ring, each and every time he enters it. Like Floyd Mayweather Jr., who grew up around a father and two brothers who were all top professional boxers, Berto comes from a fighting family.

Berto's father, Dieuseul, is a boxing, wrestling and karate expert who competed as a mixed martial arts fighter in Japan when Andre was a boy, and now runs a MMA academy in their hometown of Winter Haven, Fla. Andre's older brother, Edson, is a MMA professional with a record of 9-3-1. Another older brother, Cleveland, was a collegiate wrestler and former Florida state champion in high school.

"It had a big effect on me growing up in a household full of fighters," Berto said. "My father was very disciplined. If we got in trouble in school, he made us do 500 push-ups and 500 squats. But at the same time, he would sit down and talk with us about life in general. He put us through a lot, but it is paying off. We fed off his work ethic."

The stakes for Powell are much greater. Another loss and he would probably fall out of the pack altogether. "This fight, I am looking for a dynamic performance," said the 27-year-old junior middleweight. "This is a showcase for me and I'm really glad HBO is giving me another chance."

Chance is what he took in a big way when he agreed to face former world champion Kassim Ouma on Aug. 8. Powell had just fought a 10-rounder seven weeks earlier against a club fighter, and was taking a huge step up in class with not a lot of time for preparation.

"Personally, if I had it my way, I would have taken a few more 'A'-class fighters before fighting him. But the opportunity presented itself, it was on HBO -- and not many young fighters get that chance --so I took it," Powell said.

To understand how big a step up this was for Powell, consider that his previous opponent, Willie Lee was 14-5 and coming off a defeat to a Darnell Boone, owner of a 7-3-1 record.

"I went from Lee straight to Ouma. I kind of jumped right in and got a crash course in top level boxing," Powell said.

Crash and burn was more like it. Although Powell did not disgrace himself, he dropped a clear-cut unanimous decision to the high-powered Ouma, who threw over 100 punches a round, and would in his next fight step up to challenge middleweight champion Jermain Taylor.

Stylistically, the Ouma match-up was all wrong for Powell, who is a slick boxer who likes to work at a distance and control the pace. Ouma, as is his style, crowded Powell from the opening bell, putting on constant pressure in the form of high volume punches. Powell was slow to let his hands go, and never seemed to get untracked.

"I learned a lot from that fight," Powell said. And he passed on the knowledge to Jermain Taylor.

Powell was one of Taylor's primary sparring partners for his fight against Winky Wright. When Taylor fought Ouma this past December, the champion flew the Brooklyn-based Powell down to Miami to work with him. Powell brought along his personal "Ouma playbook."

"I came up with a good strategy to help Jermain beat Ouma," Powell said. "From fighting him, I learned Ouma likes to come straight forward, get his target and then stops and throws his punches. I told Jermain he had to use movement and throw combos. Jermain never gave Ouma a chance to stop and throw punches. Even when Jermain was backing up, he did it because you kind of have to and then turn on Ouma."

The strategy helped Taylor to a unanimous victory, and also showed up significantly in CompuBox numbers. Ouma landed only 177 of 701 total punches, and his per round average was 58, usually a half round's work for him).

Powell said his own strategy when he fought Ouma was the worst possible one. "My trainer Francisco Guzman told me to gain Ouma's respect and he would no longer keep moving forward. So I went toe-to-toe with him and fought his fight. I hit Ouma good, but I never got his respect. Later he took the best punches Jermain could throw and never backed off," Powell said.

Powell has switched trainers, and is now working with one of the best in Buddy McGirt in Florida. "We haven't made a lot of changes," Powell said. "We've tried more to build on a lot of things I do well. And the big thing is Buddy is the first trainer I ever had who really knows how to communicate with a boxer."

Smith, whom Powell has never met personally, is also a "communicator," having launched a war of trash talking against him on a popular website. Powell answered a few of the barbs, but said he figures Smith is just trying to get him angry and off his game. "A lot of his denigrating comments about me his foul language was part of his strategy to get me out of my game plan. But I am very focused and prepared to execute," Powell said.

Berto, meanwhile, remains a 12-cylinder Mercedes stuck in cruise control at 55 mph. If Berto is frustrated by the pace he is being brought along, he doesn't show it.

"It's just the way the game is," Berto said. "You can't let yourself get frustrated, because sometimes when you hit the pedal and are going 100, you could get into an accident. We're taking our time."

Despite the modest level of his competition, Berto will be no stranger to big arena competition if he eventually gets there. After being controversially disqualified in the 2004 Olympic Trials, he wound up through dual citizenship representing Haiti in the Athens Games. Although he lost in the final 20 seconds of his first match, he took solace knowing he had beaten the eventual gold winner, Balshityar Artayev of Kazakhstan , earlier that year when the 2004 Olympic Team Trials were held in Tunica, Miss.

"Being an amateur helped me when it comes to big venues today," Berto said. "I traveled to 20 different countries for tournaments while in high school. All the lights, the crowds, the TV, it's no big deal for me. I do not freeze up at all."

Berto is hoping to fight for a title by the end of this year, but he already knows what it is like being in the ring with an elite boxer.

"Winky Wright for his first fight with Shane (Mosley) called me in to spar. Then in the rematch, he called me again. For his fight with Ike Quartey, he flew me out to Vegas. Fighting with Winky, now that's frustrating. We call him "The Professor" in the gym, because he's like a teacher. You lower your hand, he jabs and punishes you. Any mistake you make, he takes advantage. I learned an awful lot working with Winky," Berto said.

Meanwhile, Berto remains stuck in the pack, waiting for his first chance to pull away to contender status. Before he can get there, he knows he has to get through the Norberto Bravos of the world, and build his fan base in the process on TV. A boxer of his potential has zero room for mistakes.

As for Powell, who said he is also targeting a championship fight by year's end, a convincing victory over Smith will help him get his prospect legs back under him so he can gallop on to bigger things.

The homestretch looks tantalizing to those still on the backstretch.