Portsmouth boxer to fight for lightweight title

PORTSMOUTH

Dorin Spivey has been written off more times than lunch at the Four Seasons. Less than three months shy of his 39th birthday, he's well past the career expiration date for a lightweight boxer.

Yet there he was Tuesday, finishing a workout that would have drained many fighters half his age, without drawing a labored breath.

After firing the last of dozens of combinations into the mitts of trainer John Hunter, he couldn't contain his enthusiasm.

"136!" he yelled out. "I feel strong as an ox."

Spivey fights Victor Vasquez for the North American Boxing Association Lightweight title tonight in Atlantic City, N.J., bringing a 40-6 record and almost 19 years of ring savvy to the task. On Tuesday, after what he calls the best training camp of his career, he was just a pound over the 135-pound limit, with three days to shed it.

"He's as strong as I've ever seen him, this close to a fight, with his weight down that low," Hunter said.

In the late rounds of his career, Spivey appears to be gaining steam. After enduring years of management turmoil and long periods of inactivity, he's still punching.

In a sport in which the uncertainty outside the ring can do as much damage as the blows inside it, his personal and professional worlds have aligned.

"When you go through down times you don't fight your best," Spivey said. "Now I've got people around me I trust and love."

Spivey has a new manager, Floyd Kuriloff, and has found a training home at Bushido Mixed Martial Arts Academy in Portsmouth.

Busy and situated again, he's knows down times, going through several promoters and wondering at times where his next fight would come from.

He's appeared all but finished on several occasions.

There was the loss to journeyman Dean White in 2006. Spivey took almost two years off after that bout.

There was a loss to Antonin Decarie in 2009. Spivey took that bout on short notice and agreed to fight at 146 pounds, in Decarie's hometown of Montreal. By fight night, Decarie weighed 164. Battered, Spivey did well to survive 12 rounds.

Spivey was signed as a steppingstone opponent for his next fight, against Meacher Major, who was considered a rising prospect. He stunned Major, knocking him out in the fourth round.

He has not lost since. Tonight's fight is his third in six months, since signing with promoter Diane Fischer.

Fischer's intention is to get Spivey, ranked No. 14 by the World Boxing Association, a world title bout. Tonight is a step in that direction.

Vasquez (14-5-2) is 29, but Spivey is conceding nothing to time, saying his reflexes are as sharp as ever and his technical skill the best it's been.

In his last fight, he averaged 100 punches a round, a dizzying work rate at any age.

Never having touched a weight before, in keeping with the old boxing belief that said weight training is taboo, he began strength training for the first time in his career, and believes it has added pop to his punches.

Hunter, a bit of an ageless wonder himself at 73, said Spivey's squeaky-clean lifestyle has kept the fighter young.

For his part, Spivey said he never planned to fight this long.

"I never thought I'd be in this position," he said. "I just hung in there and never gave up."

Ed Miller, 757-446-2372, ed.miller@pilotonline.com