‘I will become a world champion again’

“MY GOAL is to be world champion again and this new year will be an important one for me. I returned to boxing last February after a six-year break, had two fights and won them. I am satisfied that I still have it in me, and I will be busy this year, with another world title as my goal. I know that I am going to do it again.”

Those were the confident words of former World Boxing Association (WBA) Super World Featherweight champion, Nicholas ‘The Axeman’ Walters, in a recent interview with The Gleaner.

Walters, who is now at a training camp in Las Vegas, was the first Jamaican boxer to win a world title on local soil, when he defeated Daulis Prescott by way of an eighth-round TKO, at Jamaica’s National Indoor Sports Centre, on December 8, 2012.

He ruled his division and was unbeaten until he lost to Vasyl Lomachenko, on November 26, 2016. The turning point in his career, however, came about on June 13, 2015, when he lost his world title on the scale, before what should have been a title defence against Miguel Marriaga at Madison Square Garden, New York.

He came in overweight and the title was declared vacant.

The fight did go on, and he won by unanimous decision, but his career took a plunge after that.

Before the Marriaga fight, he broke up with his long-time manager Jacques Deschamps Jr and his rapid descent into oblivion, came about shortly afterwards.

In his next fight, a non-title event on December 19, 2015, he drew with Jason Sosa, and then, in a title fight on November 26, 2016, against Lomachenko for the World Boxing Organization featherweight title, he retired at the end of round seven.

He was outclassed by Lomachenko, losing every round, and at the end of round seven, he decided not to continue the fight.

Axeman’s decision was widely compared with Roberto Duran’s infamous ‘No Mas’ decision in his fight against Sugar Ray Leonard in November 1980, after which the great boxer also sank into oblivion.

NEW LEASE ON LIFE

Six years later, however, Axeman is back with a new lease on life. He returned to training and had two fights last year. He won the first against Luis Diaz Marmol on February 25 by unanimous decision and the second against Reynaldo Esquivia on November 22, by second-round TKO.

He told The Gleaner that after those two fights, he was convinced that he still has what it takes to be champion again, and has settled down to intense, structured training.

He is now being managed by a seasoned boxing man, Gabriel Barron, who is based in California, USA, and together, he said, they have charted a world title course of action. His next fight, which is scheduled for February 17, will be against a promising and unbeaten fighter, Lucas Bahdi, who is from Canada, and has a 15-0 record.

Walters, whose record is 28-1-1, says that this is the type of challenge that he needs now.

“I had two warm-up fights to see for myself if I still have it, and I am convinced that I do. From here forward, it will only be difficult opponents, as my aim is to get into the top-10 rankings since that is the only path to a world title fight. I will be fighting at lightweight, which is 135 pounds, and I think that I will be able to make that weight comfortably. At age 37, I have at least four good years of boxing left in me, and all that I have to do now is to listen to my trainer, work hard and see what happens. I go into 2024 confidently, and I am sure that if everything falls into place, I will become a world champion again, for myself and for Jamaica.”