RAY AUSTIN vs DaVARRYL WILLIAMSON

Recycled heavyweights meet on Saturday’s show in Las Vegas when DaVarryl Williamson takes on Ray Austin in a WBC elimination match.

It’s surprising to think of either getting the chance to box for a championship after Austin’s second-round collapse against Wladimir Klitschko and Williamson’s dreary defeat against Chris Byrd. Promoter Don King is giving them what must be surely a last opportunity and now it is up to the fighters. If they turn in a 12-round maul, the prospect of the winner getting a title fight would be seen as an embarrassment, but if one of them can win in exciting style he will have made a case for himself — well, sort of.

The main event on this show, Joseph Agbeko in a bantamweight title defence against Yonnhy Perez, and the chief supporting bout between lightweights Antonio DeMarco and Jose Alfaro will be televised on Showtime.

Williamson versus Austin and an undercard featuring up-and-coming fighters is being offered on DonKingtv.com for $5.99.

I know there are those who will scoff at the Williamson-Austin fight, and maybe they are right to do so, but sometimes fights that don’t look too appealing can exceed expectations.

Williams and Austin, goodness knows, have had their bad nights, but they have also had some good ones. No, I don’t think either of them has done anything to deserve a world title eliminator, but these are well-known heavyweights who do know how to fight.

The problem everyone has with Austin is his lamentable non-challenge against Klitschko two years ago. He has won three bouts since, but fans and critics won’t soon forget the way he folded at the first whiff of gunpowder.

Austin is obviously a better fighter than he looked that night. He seemed to be intimidated and, as they say in the trade, he “didn’t show up”. Last November, though, Austin came in at 228 pounds, his lightest weight ever, for the one-round win over Andrew Golota in China. It was in some ways a hollow victory because Golota suffered an arm injury, but Austin looked good in the three minutes the fight lasted, backing up Golota and knocking him down.

The 38-year-old from Cleveland is one of those fighters whose form fluctuates almost from fight to fight. He showed heart and determination when surviving a knockdown to force a draw against Sultan Ibragimov, and he also drew with the capable if reluctant Larry Donald. Eight years ago in Las Vegas I was ringside for Austin’s weird fight with Attila Levin, when he scored a first-round knockdown and then hardly landed another meaningful punch on his way to being stopped in nine rounds.

Williamson, 41, is another who can be called unreliable. A former top-quality amateur, he has scored some impressive KO wins with his “Touch of Sleep” right hand but he went out like a light in 97 seconds against Joe Mesi. Williamson showed grit when outscoring Oliver McCall despite one eye being swollen shut in the later rounds, but he allowed Chris Byrd to outwork and outgame him in an IBF title challenge.

I think that Williamson's best performance might have come in his split technical decision defeat against Wladimir Klitschko. He knocked down his much bigger opponent and seemed in with a chance of winning when Klitschko suffered a cut in a fifth-round clash of heads.

Both Austin and Williamson blow hot and cold, as the old-time fight guys would say, and fights such as this are an oddsmaker's nightmare.

Williamson is the quicker of the two, probably the more skilled boxer and the bigger banger, but Austin, the Klitschko blowout notwithstanding, looks the sturdier man.

I make Williamson the favourite largely because of Austin’s dreadful showing against Klitschko — I just can’t get that one out of my mind. Really, though, this could go either way.

Austin seems the sort of boxer who has to believe in himself if he is to perform well, what some would call a “confidence fighter”. If he believes he can beat Williamson, then he can win; if he has doubts, he will lose.

I have no solid feeling about the fight, but my guess is that Austin is going to catch Williamson on the chin to pull out a KO win, maybe in one of the later rounds and quite possibly while trailing on the judges’ scorecards.