Lyell gets championship bout

The Niles native will fight for the IBF middleweight title on Jan. 30 in Germany.

On Thursday night, Niles’ Billy Lyell went from being a relatively unknown middleweight set to fight on a forgettable card next weekend in West Virginia to a potential world champion with an opportunity to fight IBF champion Sebastian Sylvester for the biggest payday of his life in the biggest bout of his life next weekend in Germany.

Not a bad turnaround.

By the way, what city in Germany?

“I have no idea,” said Lyell, 25, speaking by phone from his car Friday. “Something with an ‘N.’”

Pause.

“One second. I’ve got it written down here,” he said. “I’m trying to find the piece of paper.”

Another pause.

“OK, I have no idea,” he said. “It’s on Fightnews.com, though. You can look it up.”

For the record, the fight is at the Jahnsportforum in Neubrandenburg, which is about two hours north of Berlin near the Baltic Coast.

But the above story illustrates just how quickly the Jan. 30 bout came together.

Lyell (21-7, 4 KOs) was supposed to meet Bruce Rumbolz (22-19) as the main event of a Jan. 29 card at the Waterfront Place Hotel in Morgantown, W.Va.

Sylvester (32-3, 15 KOs), meanwhile, was supposed to fight Pablo Navascues on Jan. 30. But Navascues tested positive for a banned substance this week, forcing Sylvester’s handlers to scramble for a last-minute opponent.

Meanwhile, Lyell’s manager, Pat Nelson, had been pestering Sylvester’s promoters (along with the promoters of the other middleweight champs) to give his fighter a title shot.

“I always tell them, if someone has to cancel, Billy is in shape, at weight and has a passport,” said Nelson. “You’ve got to have those three things. And he’s world ranked, so that’s the fourth thing you need.

“He’s always ready to go.”

Lyell is ranked 14th by the IBF — one spot higher than Navascues — and has tried to stay busy since his upset win over previously unbeaten John Duddy last April. He’s since beat Chris Gray and Chris Overbey — two mediocre fighters — and was biding his time until he got a title shot.

“I knew eventually, if I kept doing the right thing and working hard, something would break,” said Lyell. “I’m always in the gym, so I’m never really out of shape.

“They called me and I was ready.”

Lyell agreed to the bout on Thursday night but didn’t want to jinx anything, so he went to his job as a substitute teacher at Niles (his alma mater) on Friday afternoon and then took his blood test. He was supposed to sign the contract on Friday night.

Lyell and his trainer, Jack Loew, will fly to Germany on Monday. Loew, who also trains WBC and WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik, was just as surprised by the bout as Lyell. In fact, Loew had never even heard of Navascues even though he trains two world-ranked middleweights.

“Yeah, but how many Germans have heard of Billy Lyell?” he said.

Sylvester is considered the most beatable of the three middleweight champions — German Felix Sturm holds the WBA belt — and, on paper, is a better matchup for Lyell than the other two.

At 5-71‚Ñ2, Sylvester is shorter than the 5-9 Lyell, who believes his ideal weight class is junior middleweight. By contrast, Pavlik stands 6-21‚Ñ2 and Sturm 5-111‚Ñ2.

Arthur Abraham held the IBF belt until July when he vacated the title to move up to super middleweight. Sylvester then defeated Giovanni Lorenzo for the belt in September.

Lyell will enter the bout as a big underdog, but he’s familiar with that position. His seven losses came against opponents who, at the time, had a combined record of 197-34-3.

His most recent loss was to light middleweight Vanes Martirosyan (27-0, 17 KOs) last February. Martirosyan later won the NABF title by beating Willie Lee on the undercard of last month’s Kelly Pavlik-Miguel Espino bout at YSU’s Beeghly Center.

Lyell hasn’t always beaten his best opponents, but he won’t be intimidated by the stage or the fighter, Nelson said.

“His confidence is high,” said Nelson. “I don’t think there’s a better time for him to get his shot.

“We’ve walked into the ring 13 or 14 times when he was supposed to win and even though he’s lost seven of those, he’s upset a lot of guys other than Duddy.”

As examples, Nelson pointed to Lyell’s unanimous decision wins in 2006 over up-and-comers Tony Cygan (who was 9-0) and Rob Dula (who was 15-1-1).

“His losses are close, tough fights,” said Nelson. “At least he has the opportunity to achieve greatness.

“Not everybody gets that chance.”

scalzo@vindy.com