Twenty four-year-old Vivian Harris has declared that he is the best junior welterweight in the world shortly after winning his championship fight on Saturday.
"I have proved that I'm the best junior welterweight in the world. Pernell Whittaker took 11 rounds to get rid of Hurtardo and it took Tszyu five rounds to knock him out. I did in two rounds. That says a lot," Harris in an interview with Stabroek Sport yesterday.
"My last performance has definitely sent a message across the boxing world that a Guyanese named Harris has got the right stuff.
They can bring on the bad guys now. Vivian Harris is ready," he said.
Harris, known as `Vicious' Vivian, became the youngest Guyanese to claim a world title when he snatched the WBA and IBA junior welterweight titles from champion Cuban/American Diobelys Hurtardo via a second round technical knockout in Houston, Texas Saturday evening.
Referee Lawrence Cole halted the bout with 43 seconds gone in the round to hand Guyana its second champion in eight days.
Harris hurt Hurtardo in the first round with a stiff left-right combination and finished him off with a similar combination which floored the 30-year-old. Hurtardo rose with the count at six but on wobbly legs.
Cole called on the champion to come forward but Hurtardo could only muster what seemed a feeble exhibition of a Samba dance step which prompted the referee to call a halt to the bout.
Harris said that he got a scent of victory midway into the first round when he stunned Hurtardo with a combination to the head.
"After I hurt him in the first round I knew that it would have been an early night. He was too slow and I knew I could hit him when I wanted. I feel great and am very happy. Yeah! Vivian Harris is finally a world champion," Harris exclaimed.
"I fought a smart fight. I almost didn't get hit. I promised to win the title for Guyana and I did. However, this isn't the end since I have more in store for my country," Harris added.
The champion said he planned on fighting undisputed 140-pounder champion Kosta Tszyu then maybe move up to the welterweight division.
"I'm trying to take Guyana to the next level. I would love to go up in weight and maybe challenge the guy who defeated `Six Head' (Andrew Lewis)."
The new champion stated that he did not allow the spitting incident to affect his modus operandi on Saturday. "That was out of my mind as soon as it happened. You see my soldiers took care of his camp soon after."
Harris follows in the footstep of Wayne `Big Truck' Braithwaite who won the WBC cruiserweight title on October 11. "I told Guyana that I was going to do it. Once you put your faith in God he will see you through."
Harris' trainer Lennox Blackmoore listed the victory as the best since he started training fighters. "I have trained two world champions in Julio Caesar Green (WBA middleweight) and Jill Matthews who won the women's title but with Vivian it was different. You have to understand that I was unsuccessful when I fought Aaron Pryor for the junior welterweight title in 1981. So with Vivian now winning that very same title it gives me a feeling of accomplishment," said the trainer.
Blackmoore said he was confident that his charge would have won but not that early. "I thought that we would have pulled it off in the fourth or fifth round but Vivian had other plans," the former Commonwealth lightweight champion said. The trainer disclosed that the champion will rest for approximately three weeks. "Vivian is due for a rest. He has been training for the better part of four months. He will be off for about three weeks."