RENO - Former amateur star Eric "Danger" Fields is moving through his professional career like he has a bus to catch and he plans on driving it right on over former IBF cruiserweight champion "Koncrete" Kelvin Davis, of Reno.
The 25-year-old Fields, 10-0 with 8 knockouts, and the 29-year-old Davis, 24-7-2 (17), will meet in 10-round cruiserweight bout Friday at Mallory Square, in Key West, Fla. The bout will be televised by ESPN2's Friday Night Fights beginning at 6 p.m.
Fields, of Ardmore, Okla., is coming off a one-round knockout of unheralded Eric Pippin, who had a 3-0 record going into his bout with the 2005 and 2006 National Golden Gloves champion.
Although he was a successful amateur, Fields only started boxing in 2004. His best win as a professional was a one-round knockout of 2004 Mexican Olympian and 2003 Pan American light heavyweight gold medallist Ramiro Reducindo on July 7, 2007.
"Everyone on (Davis') record is a Golden Gloves champion or some kind of medallist," said Kelly Davis, Kelvin's brother/trainer/manager Monday at The Stadium. "They've all been there. Terry Smith had 200 or 300 amateur fights.
"They have the (perception) that (Kelvin) will put on a good show, but you'll likely beat him. That's what they think."
It would be easy for someone unfamiliar with him to underestimate the 5-foot-7 Davis, who on paper has lost his last three fights - to Carl Davis Drumond in November, Smith in May and Darnell Wilson in February. He was also stripped of his title in 2005 by the IBF after a dispute with his then promoter Don King.
Even though Wilson stopped Davis in three rounds, he had to get off the deck to do so. And Davis faced Drumond less than six months after breaking his neck and back in a nearly 30-foot fall off Greenhithe Bridge, in Auckland, New Zealand.
Davis was training for a heavyweight fight with then unbeaten Shane Cameron when the accident happened. Monday at The Stadium, Davis - who along with Fields will weigh 205 pounds - looked to be in the best shape he's been in since 2005, a year after he stopped Ezra Sellers in Miami to become Northern Nevada's first and only world champion.
"I'm strong: I'm benching 315 pounds, squatting 950, and I sparred 10 rounds today with three different guys getting in fresh every round," Davis said. "I train for the knockout. What else am I going to do-beat him on points? That's my style. I knock you the (deleted) out."
If Fields beats Davis, he'll likely be credited with beating a past-his-prime fighter; if he loses, he'll be judged as having made too big a leap so early in his career. A win for Davis could only be looked at as a positive.
But for his part, Davis feels he is being overlooked and underestimated.
"Go ahead and take me lightly," he said. "I'm still the champ - even with all the circumstances I've faced. My dream ain't over till God says it's over. I work hard. I fight the best because I am the best."
Davis said that even if Fields is underestimating him, he's not going to make the same mistake.
"I don't take anyone lightly - anyone I fight is an A-class fighter," said Davis, who has been working on his footwork to increase the leverage on his punches. "I don't know anything about him. Why should I take him lightly?"
Friday will also answer the nickname-driven conundrum as to whether Davis - who began his career in 1999 - is in "Danger" of becoming a trialhorse against Fields, or whether the ambitious young Fields will run into a wall of "Koncrete" on his way up the rankings.