Detroit Heavyweight Derrick Jefferson

[Chico]

By Steve Crowe, Detroit Free Press:

Last summer, Luther (Big Lu) Campbell put 15 pounds on Lions defensive
end Kerwin Waldroup. Last year, Big Lu took 516 pounds off a local family
of four.

Within the next few years, Big Lu hopes to help put a world championship boxing
belt on Derrick Jefferson of Detroit.
Jefferson, a 6-foot-5 1/2, 251-pound heavyweight, is 19-0 -- with 11 first-round
knockouts. Most recently, Jefferson needed a second round to dispatch Marcellus
Brown on Jan. 7 at Tunica, Miss.

"People really are going to learn to love this young man," said Campbell, a longtime
trainer of local athletic stars and based at the original Powerhouse Gym in Highland
Park. "Honestly, within one year I see him rising to contention. And everybody's
going to want a ride on the bandwagon then. This is more than a diamond in the
rough."

Jefferson, 30, is a former football and basketball star at Detroit King High. He
made a big amateur boxing splash in a career of just two years, capped by winning
a gold medal at the 1994 U.S. Olympic Festival.

With Campbell on the ground floor of Team Jefferson has been manager Ron
Gentry of Rochester Hills. The camp awaits two important events:

March 4 at Soaring Eagle Casino in Mt. Pleasant, Jefferson takes on well-known
veteran Bert Cooper (34-18, 29 KOs). And Jefferson is supposed to depart soon
to be a primary training-camp sparring partner for Evander Holyfield.

Holyfield is prepping for his March 13 unification fight in New York against Lennox
Lewis, trained by Detroit's Emanuel Steward. After Cooper, 33, Gentry sees
Jefferson on a faster track to contention.

"This year, Derrick will be ranked, I think," Gentry said. "He may even fight for a
title this year. As far as the sparring, he's the perfect guy for Evander, because he's
the same size as Lennox Lewis."

Campbell said: "He's not ranked yet, but when he leaves Holyfield's camp, they're
all going to know all about him."