SHARMBA MITCHELL

updated February 20, 2007

- World championship fights - 7-2, 0 KOs (includes IBF interim world title fights)...

- Ranked IBF #6, The Ring #9, WBC #14 at 147 pounds...

- Former IBF interim jr. welterweight world champion...

- Former WBA super lightweight world champion, four successful defenses...

- Former NABF lightweight champion...

- 1985 U.S. National Jr. Olympic amateur champion, 106 pounds...

Eight days before his 36th birthday, Sharmba has been fighting as a pro for only a month short of 18 years. A natural righthander who fights in the lefthanded stance, he has fought at the top levels of competition for several years and has a number of impressive wins to his credit.

He won the WBA super lightweight world title in October, 1998, and made four successful defenses before losing the title in a unification fight against Kostya Tszyu in February, 2001. He also held the IBF interim jr. welterweight world title before losing against Tszyu in the rematch in November, 2004. This is his fourth fight as a full welterweight.

Sharmba is 2-2 in his last four fights. The most recent loss, however, was against the best boxer active today, Floyd Mayweather Jr. (TKOby6) in November, 2005. The other was against Tszyu (TKOby3), who was one of the best when they fought in November, 2004. Sharmba's most recent win was in May against tough veteran Jose Luis Cruz (W10). One of Cruz' career highlights is a 12-round draw in March, 2002, against Carlos Baldomir, who now holds the welterweight world title. The result was questionable – the fight was in Cruz' hometown of Mazatlan and most observers thought Baldomir deserved to win - but both fighters scored knockdowns, Baldomir in the second round, Cruz in the fourth, and by all accounts it was a good, close fight.

In June, 2005, Sharmba beat Chris Smith (TW5), a welterweight prospect trying to establish himself as a contender. Sharmba's wins against Cruz and Smith were decisive, as well, even though the technical decision against Smith was cut short by an injury.

Sharmba also has wins in recent years against contenders Lovemore Ndou (W12, Feb. 2004), and Ben Tackie (W12, May 2003), and former IBF jr. welterweight world champion Vince Phillips (W10, Nov. 2002).

Sharmba is past his prime, but has shown that he can still be successful at a high level of competition. Trainer Marvin Sims said, "I've been working with Sharmba since he was a little kid, since he was eight years old. He's been sparring with Keith Holmes, and a top amateur that turned pro, Maxell Taylor. We got some Russians down here, the Baku brothers. [note: Rufat and Emil] One is six-four and the other one is around six-two. Sharmba's used to sparring with them, so the height shouldn't create a problem.

"Paul Williams doesn't have the experience that Sharmba has. He didn't have many amateur fights, and Sharmba has always worked with tall guys. Terrance Cauthen don't have the experience that Sharmba has, and he gave Williams a fit."

Sharmba said, "I'm over here training at Academy Boxing, which is Charles Mooney's gym. I didn't go away this time, I just stayed at home and stayed focused.

"Since my last fight, I've done something for the first time, probably, out of my whole career, man. I just kept working out, kept training, kept working out, kept my weight down, kept running. I just stayed on a roll, doing my workout.

"I'm doing a lot of little personal training and stuff like that with a couple of people. When I do the personal training, it's not just me instucting them, I do the workout with them. Coming into training camp this time was really easy, very smooth.

"Paul Williams is a kid. He has a lot of amateur in him still, I think. They're pushing him at the right speed, they got him the right fights all the way up to here. But sometimes you have to be tested to see where you really are, and I guess this will be a great test for him. He's really long and lanky, but he has too much amateur in him.

"The three times I've seen him fight, he didn't look good to me. The last time he fought, you know, he stopped the guy, but he could have got knocked out if it was anybody else. When he fought against the guy, Terrance Cauthen, I thought he lost. It was just too close. The one before that, he was just getting hit just a little bit too much for me. How many more punches can he really take? He's throwing a lot of punches, but he's getting hit a lot.

"His last fight, the guy had him out. If the guy had any kind of real experience, then he would have knocked him out. He just didn't have the ability and the knowledge to get him out of there.

"I always liked fighting southpaws. I actually line up a little better with them. Tall ones are not that bad. The only one I've really had a problem with that was really tall was Keith Holmes. I've always had problems with him because he can hit, and his punches come fast. Keith is hard because he's so experienced, he's a two-time world champion. He came up when I came up. Other than that, I've never had a problem with southpaws. I've got quite a few guys that I can spar with that are six-one, six-two.

"Experience is really going to kick in, I think, in this fight. Big time. I know a lot of people that don't even really give me a chance. I always say commentators are what they are. Regardless of what they are, they never, ever, set foot in the ring. Until you really set foot in the ring, you really can't say anything, because you don't know the difference in whether you can do it or not. It's easy to say a lot of things outside the ring, but once you get inside that ring, man, it's something totally different.

"But I love to fight. I love this matchup. I've been saying, 'Come on, let's do this matchup.' I have to go in there and execute a great plan, you know, bring him down to my speed, down where I need him to go.

"This should be a good fight, and I just want to come out of it successfully and uninjured, and maybe move on to different things. Maybe I'll be sitting next to them, commentating one day. I think we make the best commentators, if we can get ones that are still smart enough to talk clearly."

Sharmba is experienced against top opposition, and has fought current or former world titleholders Floyd Mayweather Jr. (TKOby6) Kostya Tszyu twice (TKOby3, TKOby7), Vince Phillips (W10), Khalid Rahilou (W12), Terronn Millett (TKO1), Stevie Johnston (TKOby9), Leavander Johnson (KOby8), Rocky Lockridge (W10), and Rafael "Bazooka" Limon (W8).

Regarding his nickname, he said, "Ring Magazine did an article on me when I was in college. At the time I was going to the University of Maryland. I think I was probably the only thing going on at the university then, the basketball team was nothing, the football team was always nothing until a few years ago. They called me the 'Little Big Man on Campus.' It just stuck with me."