Van Kirk

When last seen, junior middleweight Eddie Van Kirk resembled a hit-and-run victim.He had an eight-stitch gash over his right eye, a bloody nose and battered lip, all the result of a head-on collision with Baltimore rival Vincent Pettway, who stopped him in six rounds at the Baltimore Arena last March."

He had to know. He had to climb in the ring and give it a shot against Vincent Pettway. He now knows, Eddie Van Kirk does, and at least there's a certain satisfaction in that."

Vincent Pettway renewed his boxing life at the Baltimore Arena last night, dropping Eddie Van Kirk four times and claiming the Maryland welterweight title with a knockout at 54 seconds of the sixth round.Pettway (31-4-1), who had been stopped in his two previous fights and dropped from the world ratings, matched Van Kirk's roughhouse tactics in the first three rounds and quickly turned the fight in his favor by flooring his Baltimore rival with a right cross in the fourth."We spent weeks in the gym practicing to counter with the same punch Eddie throws," Pettway said.

They have traded insults on television, derided each other's ring records and even had their pasts probed by a fortune-teller.Tonight at the Baltimore Arena, Vincent Pettway and Eddie Van Kirk finally will fight. It is a scheduled 12-round bout for the Maryland welterweight title. But even more, it is for bragging rights in Baltimore.This match has been a long time in the making, dating back to their amateur boxing days when they eyed each other suspiciously but never fought."We were always separated by a weight class," said Pettway, 25, who was considered a good enough prospect to be invited to the Olympic training site at Colorado Springs, Colo.

In parlance befitting the sport and the situation, time to put up or shut up, guys.If you listen to the words flowing from the respective fight camps, Eddie Van Kirk will be like a "freight train" when he meets Vincent Pettway at the Baltimore Arena tonight.Pettway says he'll remain "calm and focused" throughout the state welterweight title bout, which is scheduled for 12 rounds but is not expected to last much past half that.Fire vs. Ice, a matchup of diverse possibility.It's been an interesting couple of weeks leading up to the bout, which followers of the sweet science have been clamoring for for a couple of years.

Selling tickets to boxing matches on the basis of neighborhood rivalries and ethnic identities won't play any more. Good common sense, or maybe it was sophistication, scored a knockout. And how about a grudge match? Another staple of the pastBut now the old scenarios are being revived. Come Monday night, Eddie Van Kirk, a warrior from Westport, will take on Vincent Pettway, who is from Lower Govans, in a main event for the welterweight championship of Baltimore. You can even make it all of Maryland if there's a compulsion to stretch the geographical boundaries.

Reading time, two minutes: The boxing mob, apprised of the odds favoring Vincent Pettway in Monday night's strangely named "Battle of Bad Blood" against Eddie Van Kirk at the Arena, looked the other way and sees it as a dead-even affair.For Van Kirk (all by KO) -- Don Elbaum, Tom Roth, Nick Trotta, Lou Benson, Carson McCourry, Tom Danna and Gia The Round Girl, who says, "Eddie will catch my spirit and take him out in five."For Pettway (mostly by decision) -- Clarence "Du" Burns, Russell Peltz, Max Kisner, Johnny Gilden, Ron Essett, Josh Hall, Frank Gilbert.

At the back table in the restaurant on Eutaw Street, a fortune-teller with a mound of white hair is massaging a pair of black boxing gloves."These belong to someone who is very angry," she says.Then she is rubbing a jump rope."No," she says. "The person who uses these would rather be running."Then she is rubbing a pair of red boxing gloves. She frowns."I don't get a good feeling from these," she says. "No feeling at all."The television cameras are rolling. The newspapers are there. Don Elbaum is happy.

Two twists have been added to spice the Vincent Pettway-Eddie Van Kirk match for the state welterweight title at the Baltimore Arena on March 4.The payday each fighter receives will depend on the outcome, with the winner ($7,500) of the scheduled 12-round bout guaranteed more than the loser ($5,000), in a special deal arranged by promoter Don Elbaum.With both fighters predicting early knockouts, it was a relatively easy sell for Elbaum. Van Kirk's manager, Tony Pulaski, produced a dummy copy of a March 4 sports page from The Sun with a headline proclaiming, "Van Kirk KOs Pettway in First Round."

The City and Poly of Baltimore fistiania, Vincent Pettway and Eddie Van Kirk, are going to get a chance to prove they're up to the old challenge of putting their money where their mouth is.When the rivals climb into the Baltimore Arena ring March 4 to decide the state welterweight championship, there will be more than pride and bragging rights riding on the outcome.While the long-awaited matchup isn't a winner-take-all proposition, the purse differential of $7,000 to the victor and $5,000 to the vanquished figures to be a factor goading each to extracurricular effort.