The Ike Man Cometh

LAS VEGAS —  Give up without a fight?

Never. Not Ike Quartey. Not even with malaria racking his body. Not even when the pain was so bad he was doubled over.

The man described as Quartey’s “spiritual advisor,” Dr. Oko Kwate Kwei, assured him that his fight against Jose Lopez, set for Oct. 17, 1997, in Ledyard, Conn., could be rescheduled. Probably should be rescheduled. Quartey’s trainer, Dan Odamtten, told him not to fight until the malaria passed. Quartey’s promoter, Dino Duva, told him not to fight.

There was too much at stake to do otherwise. After all, Quartey was putting a 34-0 record with 29 knockouts on the line against one of the most dangerous welterweights around, a man Oscar De La Hoya once said was the fighter with the best chance of beating him.

For Quartey, all the years of fighting his way out of the poverty of his native Ghana, of fighting for his place despite being the youngest in a family that included 27 brothers and sisters, of fighting across Europe to make a name for himself, all of that would have been worthwhile if he could get into that Ledyard ring against Lopez.

A victory would put Quartey in line for a shot at De La Hoya, which would mean millions in Quartey’s pocket and could mean worldwide acclaim with a victory.

“He had to lay off training for 10 days,” Kwei said of Quartey. “We only got in about one week of work. He was drained. He was emaciated. I wanted to pull out. I had heard a lot about Lopez. I did not want Ike to blow his big opportunity. He went into that fight half dead.”

But Quartey wouldn’t hear of a postponement.

“I love to fight,” he said. “I love it.”

So fight he did, though it turned out to be the biggest struggle of his career. Knocked down twice, Quartey went on to eke out a draw.

It was the first blemish on the professional record of Quartey, who will fight for De La Hoya’s World Boxing Council welterweight title Saturday night at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Quartey’s connection with boxing precedes his days in the ring. Nine years before he was born, one of his many brothers, also named Ike, won a silver medal as a light-welterweight in the 1960 Olympics in Rome.

The tradition was passed on to the younger Ike, who fought with relish in the streets of Accra before first putting on the gloves at age 7 in a neighborhood gym.

It was in that gym that Quartey first met Odamtten, who became his trainer on the day Quartey’s boxing career really began, when he fought his first amateur bout at age 14.

Twenty-eight years after Rome, another Ike Quartey fought under the Olympic banner, representing Ghana at 140 pounds at the 1988 Games in Seoul, Korea.

Quartey didn’t win a medal, losing in the quarterfinals, but he hasn’t lost since.

Possessor of a vicious jab that is now considered one of the best in boxing, Quartey won his professional debut in front of his hometown crowd on Nov. 26, 1988, knocking out Mama Mohamed in the second round.

That was hardly an aberration. Quartey went on to knock out 21 of his first 22 opponents, the lone exception being Peter McIntosh. McIntosh was also stopped early, but he stopped himself, losing on a fourth-round disqualification.

When Quartey’s record reached 17-0, he went to Italy to fight Alfredo Jaurena. As the bell rang to start the bout, Kwei realized he didn’t have a stool available for the corner. He looked away in search of one, missing Quartey’s first knockdown of Jaurena. Kwei looked away again, finally spotting a stool, but by the time Kwei looked back, Jaurena was down again. And this time, he wasn’t getting up.

Kwei said that Quartey, in his early days, had one flaw in his approach.

“He rushed too much,” Kwei said. “I told him he had to learn to be patient.”

Of course where Quartey learned to fight--in the streets of Accra--if one didn’t rush to the attack, one just might be rushed to the hospital.

Patience was no virtue there.

Quartey won a major world title in June 1994. His 11th-round knockout of Crisanto Espana in Levallois, France, made Quartey the World Boxing Assn., welterweight champion.

Quartey began to attract bigger names. The biggest to date was Vince Phillips, whom Quartey stopped in the third round of their 1996 title bout.

The match against Lopez was Quartey’s seventh title defense.

Joining Duva in Quartey’s corner was attorney Fred Levin, one of the most successful personal-injury lawyers in the country. Quartey moved his base of operations to Pensacola, Fla., training near Levin’s oceanfront mansion.

The good times seemed at hand.

Or so Quartey thought.

Instead, he discovered that while fighting with malaria was tough, he was about to learn about something much tougher--not fighting at all.

Having survived Lopez, Quartey found himself in demand against the top fighters in his weight class--De La Hoya, Pernell Whitaker and Felix Trinidad. Quartey was lined up to fight them all. But over an agonizing 1998, he failed to throw a punch against any of them.

Whitaker and Quartey were to meet last April until a positive drug test forced Whitaker out of the ring.

Quartey had planned to fight Trinidad last summer until the continuing legal struggle between Duva and rival promoter Don King prevented Trinidad from stepping into the ring.

De La Hoya was to face Quartey last November. But that fight was postponed when De La Hoya suffered a cut over his left eye in a sparring session.

“I want to go into the ring,” Quartey, 29, said. “That is my business. Every time somebody pulls out, it is a big disappointment. Every time I get ready and make plans, it doesn’t happen.”

What frustrates Quartey even more is that he doesn’t believe De La Hoya was even hurt.

“I just don’t think he was ready,” Quartey said.

“He just wanted to buy some time.”

De La Hoya laughs off that charge.

“He can think whatever he wants to think,” De La Hoya said.

Kwei insists he isn’t worried about the adverse effect the long period of inactivity might have on Quartey.

“All of the delays,” Kwei said, “have just made Ike hungrier.”

Malaria, drug abuse, legal hassles and a split eyelid. After a year filled with those kinds of problems, a hungry Quartey figures facing De La Hoya, as good as he is, will be a piece of cake.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

The Facts

De La Hoya (29-0, 24 KO) vs. Quartey (34-0, 29 KO)

Saturday

Las Vegas

6 p.m.

Pay-per-view

RANDY HARVEY

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