"AND IN THIS CORNER...OKTAY WHO?"

by Nat Gottlieb

His name is Oktay Urkal, and if you only know one thing about him, know this: the man is convinced he can beat Miguel Cotto.

You would be hard-pressed to find anyone in America who agrees with him, let alone has even heard of him. In his native Germany, where he is well known and liked, they wish him well, but aren't laying their hard-earned deutschmarks down on him against Cotto.

"Not only is he expected to lose by Americans," said Heikel Mallwitz, media director for Urkal's German promoter, Sauerland Events, "but in Germany he is not expected to win. At best, most people maybe give him a chance, but it would be very hard to fight in an arena in Puerto Rico with everybody rooting against him, and also being 37."

While few outside of Germany know who he is, Urkal is keenly aware of his own identity and what he has accomplished. He has a strong self confidence built on a solid foundation, his record is first rate (38-3), and included on his resume are European championship belts in two weight classes. He was also an elite amateur who won a silver medal in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and overall is a highly-skilled and intelligent boxer who always comes to fight.

That being said, Urkal doubts his resume will do little more than draw a yawn from Cotto (28-0) when they fight March 3 in San Juan on HBO's World Championship Boxing.

"Not only is Cotto thinking that it will be easy to beat me -- all people in America are thinking in this way," said Urkal, using Mallwitz as interpreter. "Well, we live in free countries, the people can think what they want. Everything is possible in boxing and Cotto will be surprised for sure when he fights with me."

Urkal actually has a history of surprising elite fighters. Three times since 2001, Urkal has fought for a world title, and in each instance he not only overcame adversity in the ring, he almost won.

Urkal had his first "Oktay Who? Moment" when he went up against the great pound-for-pounder Kostya Tszyu, in 2001 at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut.

Then in his prime, Tszyu came into the bout having won five straight world title fights, all by knockout, beating elite boxers such as Diosbeylis Hurtado, Miguel Angel Gonzalez, Julio Cesar Chavez and Sharmba Mitchell. Like Cotto, Tszyu was considered a wrecking ball.

Urkal was 28-0 at the time, but with only 10 knockouts, he was supposed to be a light puncher. He proved anything but, as he would go on to land numerous power shots that seemed to sap the strength of Tszyu, and even rocked the champion on more than one occasion.

Tszyu likes to crowd and overpower opponents, but he was unable to get his game going because Urkal used his hand speed and footwork -- which were described after the fight as "dazzling" -- and his ring smarts to keep Tszyu from getting up close and personal.

Urkal did not spend the 12 rounds dancing, however. Several times, Urkal went toe-to-toe with Tszyu. By the end of the sixth round, the fight was all but dead even, and the raucous pro-Tszyu crowd had been silenced. Then adversity struck. The champion broke Urkal's jaw in the seventh round.

Despite tremendous pain, Urkal refused to quit. Tszyu dominated most of the remaining rounds but in the 12th, Urkal dramatically summoned his last ounce of courage and strength and came out at the bell on fire, throwing and connecting high-volume power punches which kept backing Tszyu up. When the final bell sounded, the crowd, which had known nothing about Urkal before, cheered him for his effort.

Broken jaw and all, Oktay Urkal gave Tszyu a tough fight, with the final scorecards reading, 116-113, 115-113 and 116-112 for the champion. It was the first time in 12 fights Tszyu had to go the distance, a span covering five years. Oktay Who? had left a calling card.

When asked today how he fought so fiercely with a broken jaw, Urkal said: "I am a fighter and of course I feel the pain, but in title fights and you must accept the pain. It is a question of character." Urkal even disagreed with the scorecards.

"I thought I won the fight, even with the broken jaw, and I still think it today, too," Urkal said. "But the fight was in America and it was difficult for me to win by points."

That fight proved to be no aberration. One American resident who definitely knows who Oktay Urkal is Vivian Harris, former champion and current junior welterweight contender.

In April of 2004, Urkal, still with that sole loss on his record, earned a second chance at a world title, facing Harris, the junior welterweight champion, in Berlin. Harris came into the fight at the top of his game, having just beaten the then undefeated Souleymane M'baye (27-0), who today is 35-1 and will challenge Andreas Kotelnik for his junior welterweight title seven days after Urkal fights Cotto.

Going into the Harris fight, Urkal was 34-1, had won the European junior welterweight title and defended it three times. Harris, however, was a world class fighter, and again Urkal would be fitted with the underdog collar.

By the end of the first six rounds, that collar had been discarded. The scorecards had it 57-56 twice for Harris, 57-56 for Urkal. Like the Kostzu fight, this one was up for grabs. Entering round 10, it was still anybody's fight, but then the two fighters butted heads. Urkal took his blow hard on the nose.

"I broke the nose so I had a lot of breathing problems," Urkal said. Struggling for breath, the game German won the 10th round, before losing the 11th and 12th on all three scorecards. When the judges' cards were tallied, Urkal had lost a majority decision by those final two rounds: 114-112, 114-112, and one judge scored it even, 113-113.

Urkal felt so bad about losing in front of his hometown fans, that he took the announcer's microphone and apologized to the crowd.

"It was my first world title fight in my home town of Berlin. My parents emigrated from Turkey, but I was born and raised in Berlin. I had wanted to say thank you to my fans by wearing a world championship belt, and I knew they were disappointed. That's why I apologized," Urkal said.

Six months later, after having negotiated in vain to fight Ricky Hatton, Harris found himself in Berlin again. This time, Urkal did not break anything in the ring. He did it in training.

"Two weeks before the fight I consulted with a doctor because I was having trouble breathing again," Urkal said. "But nobody recognized at the time that my nose was broken."

As a result, Urkal experienced breathing problems from the opening bell. Yet after six rounds, again the fight was very close, with Harris leading on one card 59-55, Urkal on another, 58-57, and one judge had it even, 57-57. The struggle to breathe eventually took its toll, and Urkal began to wear down. In the 1lth round, Harris sent Urkal to the canvas. He got up but stumbled and the referee stopped the fight. Despite his handicap, Urkal had kept the fight competitive. The scorecards read at the time of the TKO, 98-92, 97-93 and 96-95, all for Harris.

Since then, Urkal has won four times without losing, including capturing and defending the European welterweight title. In June of last year, Ricky Hatton at first announced he would defend his newly-won welterweight title against Urkal, who was the mandatory, then changed his mind and said he was giving up the belt to go back to junior welterweight.

The sanctioning body ordered Cotto to fight Urkal for the vacated title, but Cotto's promoter, Top Rank, gave the German step-aside money so he could fight the unbeaten, but much less experienced, Carlos Quintana on Dec. 2. Urkal was promised he would fight Cotto next. Some speculated Cotto was ducking Urkal, wanting an easier fight for his first test as a welterweight. Urkal, however, does not see it that way.

"I don't believe this was so," Urkal said. "I think above all it was important for the TV. The TV in America wanted to get a fight with two well known names, and of course Quintana in the U.S. is more famous than me. That's business. But the long time of waiting was not easy."

Of course one could argue virtually any American fighter of remote distinction is more famous than Urkal, which brings him to the same question he faced when he fought Tszyu: Oktay Who?

Urkal is unfazed by the lack of recognition. Having studied tapes of Cotto, Urkal understands the challenge he is facing -- and even says he knows how to beat him.

"Cotto fights like Mike Tyson. He is very offense-minded and aggressive. He tries to destroy you," Urkal said. "I won't reveal my strategy, but when I get into the ring, I will see how Cotto moves and in what way he is trying to destroy me and then react and use my skills, knowledge and experience. If I do that, I can beat him."

At 37, Urkal knows he is "all-in" for a final try at the elusive world championship.

"Absolutely. I'm sure that it will be my last chance to get the title and I will do everything for that goal," Urkal said.

Urkal is aware retirement beckons soon, and knows how he wants to be remembered by his fans.

"I hope the fans will accept my achievements and that I always gave 100 per cent. I hope the fans will say: 'Oktay was an honest and fair sportsman, and when he was fighting, there was always action.'"

And hey, just maybe fans in America might even remember his name.