BOXING Opportunity knocks for Whitaker

The Valley fighter gets a main-event 10-rounder Saturday.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Warren boxer Etianne E.T. Whitaker's 48-bout professional career has been just like an elevator ride with an up-and-down effect.
The 32-year-old veteran, who as an amateur was a five-time local Golden Gloves champion, has a 32-14-2 record with 21 knockouts, but every time he assumes the role of a contender, in a considered big fight, one of those 14 losses has occurred.
Now, according to his longtime manager, Pat Nelson of Youngstown, opportunity is knocking again.
Whitaker, coming off a KO win Oct. 16 over Anthony Spain, is scheduled Saturday in a main event 10-rounder against undefeated Oklahoma prospect Allan Green. The 25-year-old Green is 13-0 with nine knockouts.
Mixing it up
With Tommy Cordell doing the training, Whitaker has been mixing up his training between three different gyms between Warren and Youngstown as he realizes that once again he is an opponent against a fighter on another guy's home turf.
Green, at 6-foot-2, a normal light heavyweight, is a hometown boy from Tulsa, Okla., with the fight being at the Buffalo Run Casino in Miami, Okla.
It is on a six-bout card promoted by Tony Holden Promotions. Green has stopped three undefeated fighters in Conal MacPhee, Joe Pastorello and Ola Afolabi.
Whitaker who at times finds good conditioning a problem, said, "I am ready and in shape for this fight," which should be true as he was preparing for a Nov. 13 bout in Madison Square Garden on Don King's "Night of the Heavyweights" when his opponent pulled out of the bout.
"I never stopped training," said Whitaker, as he claims this opportunity will not pass him by.
Nelson said, "From his last fight, a knockout victory, a good win Saturday night should have E.T. right back in the title picture for the light-heavyweight division."