Panama ? Jesus ?Master? Gomez Gym. After having tried to convince three separate taxi drivers to take us down to this particular Barrio, none of which was too happy with the suggestion, we finally found a driver and arrived. This is a rough area of Panama. There?s a pretty girl down on the corner with long brown hair blowing slightly in a hot breeze. On the other corner, a man, skin like leather and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, makes a sign with his hand as if shooting a pistol at me. I return fire but my finger gun is pointing towards the gym door and he smiles and yells ?Ola?. Boxing is the land of Kings here in Duran country.
Inside the gym it is a sweltering 105 degrees, humid, plus. It is here that we will find ?The Axeman?. Nicholas Walters is the WBA World Champion with a record of 23-0 and 19 knockouts. On May 31st at the Venetian Resort in Macao he will defend his title against tough as nails Vic Darchinyan. On the same card Nonito Donaire will defend his version of the WBA Super World Championship, same Featherweight division, against Simpiwe Vetyeka. ?The Axeman? and ?The Flash?, on a Top Rank collision course.
Former Panamanian World Champions, now retired, Hilario Zapata and Enrique Pinder, stop to say hello. It is not uncommon to have four or five World Champions stop by, to chat within a one hour time period at this gym. What is uncommon, but perhaps not for boxing, is having a Jamaican born boxer, now training and resident in Panama, engaging in the biggest fight of his life at a Casino, owned by an American resident in Las Vegas, who happens to be one of the wealthiest men in the world, in Macao.
Nicholas ?The Axeman? Walters has just finished a twenty-minute speed skipping of rope and his blue heavy sweater is soaking wet. He moves on to some pad work and the first thing that one notices about Walters is that at 126 pounds he exudes pure power. He is extremely broad across the shoulders and everything he throws is as if an electrical jolting pulse. He digs a hard left hook and then comes right back with a left uppercut while pivoting to one side. Pure power!
Walters is a friendly man to talk with but he doesn?t speak many words, but then again when you?ve knocked out nineteen of your twenty-three opponents, are in the prime of your boxing career at the age of twenty-eight, and are the WBA World Featherweight Champion, not much needs to be said. Fists of fury have spoken their own words.
On May 31st Walters will take a step up in quality of opposition when he faces the tough as nails Darchinyan and it will be interesting to see if his power holds true when he moves up to this type of class of fighter. It is not by mistake that the legendary Bob Arum has arranged to have Walters fight an opponent, in Darchinyan, who is just coming off a fight with Donaire. It will be an interesting comparative analysis to see what level ?The Axeman? is at. If he wins, and if Nonito Donaire wins, look forward to a very interesting fight between two boxers either of which, if they land, have one punch finishing power. First then, May 31st, to the Venetian Resort in Macao. ?The Axeman? cometh Donaire, beware!
