Cracking Article on Willie Limonds in the run up to the Morales fight!

alba · Sep 5, 2010

http://sport.scotsman.com/boxing/Mexican-brave-Willie-Limond-is.6513577.jp?articlepage=1

On a warm sunny day in the east end of Glasgow, three men are watching a pale-skinned, chisel-faced boxer going through his shadow boxing routine in a new gym.

The Scott Harrison School of Boxing is two floors up in a sparse, industrial building just 100 yards away from where the eponymous former world featherweight champion learned his trade in his father Peter's Phoenix gym that is now, quite literally, a pile of rubble making way for the rejuvenation of Dalmarnock.

Thoughts of his son, still imprisoned in Spain for police assault, are never far from Peter Harrison's mind, but today he is concentrating on preparing Willie Limond for his toughest ever fight. It is the WBU lightweight champion's final workout before he flies west.

Next Saturday night in Mexico City's Plaza Del Toros, Limond, a 31-year-old joiner from Glasgow, will face Erik Morales, superstar of boxing, for the WBC Diamond light-welterweight title. Boxing aficionados may pinch themselves at this point - our Willie from Glasgow versus the truly great Erik "El Teribile" Morales in the Mexican's home city? Surely it's lamb to the slaughter stuff.

Not if you listen to Limond and his camp. The three men who are watching Limond are Harrison, assistant trainer Steve Williams, and Glasgow University sports scientist Dr Niall MacFarlane. Harrison is the most experienced and most successful professional trainer in Scotland, Williams is fluent in Spanish and has huge knowledge of South American boxers, while MacFarlane has advised Limond on coping with the conditions he will face.

"The big problem would have been the altitude had he been fighting at 7,800 feet without good preparation for that," says Dr McFarlane. "So for the past eight weeks Willie has been sleeping in a hypoxia chamber. He's also been walking about the house in an face mask to acclimatise himself to conditions of just over 8,000 feet, but then he's still been able to train at sea level so he keeps his speed and sharpness.

"His body has actually adapted to the altitude conditions. We checked his blood before he started training and now after his eight weeks his red blood cell count has doubled.

"If you're at 7,800 feet you lose a third of the oxygen that you breathe in but his red blood cell count is up 100 per cent so he will be carrying more oxygen all the time.

e's been running 10 kilometres and says he's been flying."

Limond is sanguine about the perfectly legal blood boosting technique: "We won't know until we get there if it has really worked, but Dr MacFarlane has checked my blood and he says my bodADVERTISEMENT

y has definitely reacted to it."

Morales, the conqueror of Manny Pacquiao and Marco Antonio Barrera, though both gained revenge wins over him, is stepping down from welterweight, while Limond is stepping up to this new catchweight Diamond division, instituted by the WBC to enable top fighters to meet at intermediate weights. Both men must weigh between 10st 1lb and 10st 5lb, and Limond is already there. The man who came within an ace of stopping Amir Khan looks in magnificent shape and is confident.

He explains: "I feel fit and because it is a catchweight contest at a heavier weight I have not had to watch what I have been eating too much, but I've been eating lots of healthy stuff so I feel as strong as a bull."

Nor is he overawed. "I know I am fighting a living legend in Erik Morales. He's huge over there. The arena holds 45,000 normally and they are having to put in extra seats to bring it up to 54,000 because of the demand. It's on pay-per-view over there and I'm just glad he chose me. I don't know why he did, but I'm glad he did.

"If I get a good result against him and another big fight after that I could be set for life. I hope so because I fight for my family. That's why I will be giving it everything I've got. It's also the weekend before Mexico's Independence Day and there's lots of celebrations planned, but I hope to throw a few spanners in the works and spoil the party.

"He is a clever boxer with lots of experience and let's face it, he's fought better guys than me, but he's had plenty of wars and hopefully that will tell on him.

"I will be concentrating on our fight plans. Working with Peter and Steve, it's been like an encyclopaedia of boxing. I am ready to change tactics if I have to, and we have a Plan B, Plan C and all the way to Plan Z."

Limond has no regrets about his failure to beat Khan in July, 2007, but Peter Harrison has his view on that: "I trained Willie up to three years ago, and stopped just before he fought Amir Khan. I always feel that maybe if I had been in his corner that night, things might have changed both for him and for Amir Khan because he might have been able to finish him off. But that's history."

On the wall of the School of Boxing, Scott Harrison's face and name are everywhere. His son's shadow is plain in Harrison's eyes: "I said to my wife after a few days that I was finding it difficult working with professionals again. I'm working with Willie, and we have Alex Arthur in the same gym again, and it is just like the old days, except Scott is not here, so I found it difficult to cope. But now I am delighted to be here and preparing for big fights again.

"I admire Willie as a boxer and as a person.

Mexican brave: Willie Limond is aiming high as he takes on Erik Morales in his own backyard

He's the kind of guy that not many people dislike. But this is a massive fight for him. Everybody knows how good Erik Morales is.

"We know that if it goes to points, there will be a home town decision, but we have plans in place and I know for a ADVERTISEMENT

fact that Morales is beatable and Willie has a very good chance to beat him. He is a harder puncher than people think, for instance."

Steve Williams, the former professional middleweight who fought out of Grangemouth but who now owns a gym in Javea in Spain, about 30 minutes along the coast from Benidorm, said: "I work with a lot of South American boxers, particularly Colombians.

"They have a totally different style and boxing culture from us Europeans.

"But Willie is a fresh guy, for all the fights he has had. He has great feet and movement, and he has deceptive power. He is a true professional, with a great attitude to his work as a fighter."

If Limond beats Morales in his own backyard, and that's a mighty big if, it will be one of the greatest achievements in Scottish boxing history. It's well worth saying that it couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

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Good luck willie ,hope you can pull it off .

Dunky McCafferty · Sep 5, 2010

Im not a fan of Dr mcfarlane, I really think he talks a lot of hot air(no pun intended)

He used to work with scotty, & I remember him saying that he was trying to make Scotty have 0.5% body fat or something like that, said he wanted Scott to be like a 'skeleton with muscle' & here he is again making Limond walk around the house with masks on & sleep in tents, talking about his red blood cell count like its all important...

Never trusted the blokes ways, dont get me wrong Im not saying hes wrong... I just think better relying on old fashioned ways to prepare for fights.

Best of luck to Willie, & hope Dr McFarlanes ways work a treat!

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Cracking Article on Willie Limonds in the run up to the Morales fight!

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Dunky McCafferty Boxing Junkie banned

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Cracking Article on Willie Limonds in the run up to the Morales fight!

alba Guess who? Full Member

Dunky McCafferty Boxing Junkie banned