The boxer's life is never easy, whether the fighter in question is a megastar or a four round club fighter. For Sharmba Mitchell, a former world champion currently positioning himself for another shot at the crown, he goes through the same doubts any fighter goes through. It's what he does after those doubts that will determine his future.

"Sometimes I sit in training camp or I wake up in the morning and have to go run or train and I say to myself, 'How the hell did I ever get involved with this sport?'" laughed Mitchell. "God has blessed me with the talent to do so many other things and I'm involved with one of the craziest and roughest sports ever. But then I have to thank god for blessing me with a talent and getting me this far. I know that some people had that talent but could never reach this plateau."

Mitchell wants to get back to the top of the junior welterweight division, where the man who took his title, Kostya Tszyu, currently resides. It won't be easy, especially in one of the sport's deepest divisions, but after an impressive decision win over Vince Phillips a week and a half ago, Mitchell has given notice that he's back to championship form after surgery for a serious knee injury.

Unfortunately, much of the talk following Mitchell's victory over Phillips focused on his post-fight comments about Tszyu and fellow contender Zab Judah, not on the boxing clinic he put on against the still-dangerous "Cool Vince". In effect, he became known as "Little Big Mouth" instead of "Little Big Man."

"I don't think so," said Mitchell when asked if his post-fight comments overshadowed his win. "The media takes comments further than what they are. My comments after the fight were more of a figure of speech. It was a put up or shut up type of thing. I wasn't talking about his (Judah's) sexuality or anything like that, and that was what the media tries to play it up to be. And the comment to Tszyu was a figure of speech. It was a thing of 'stop acting like you're one of these bum fighters out there.' Give a rematch and clean your slate. You had a guy who was on one leg and he was beating you for several rounds. You couldn't put him away; you couldn't cleanly win the fight. Let's do it again."

Judah, another champion dethroned by Tszyu, quickly fired back with comments of his own, and suddenly an intriguing match between two speedy boxers became a bit of a grudge match - at least from Judah's end. Mitchell doesn' t see it quite that way.

"He made comments to the comments I made after my fight," said Mitchell. "And he made comments after my fight with Tszyu, but I don't respond to things like that because they all come to a head in the future like it did. He went in there with Tszyu and got knocked out. I never said anything because this is business. Anything to pump a fight. Ali did it and he did it the best. And I keep trying to tell him, let's grow up. Comments are gonna come, and we're gonna bicker back and forth. That's what promoting is all about. Let's make this money in the ring, and don't make it a street thing. This is business and you have to take it like that. At the end of the day and after we fight, we should be able to hook up, go out, have a drink or go to eat, and we're friends. I don't dislike the man or anything like that. I want to go into there, handle my business in the ring, get paid for it, and outside the ring, we're friends. Bowe and Holyfield did it."

Mitchell is no fool, and he is obviously trying to drum up interest for some high profile fights. But his post-fight outburst seemed out of character, and reeked of his understandable frustration with his current situation and the undeserved reputation he got after retiring in his corner after fighting a dead-even bout with Tszyu in 2001.

"Everyone has an opinion and you take criticism," said Mitchell. "I take it every day. And until they step in the ring or have a knee injury they can't say anything. They've never, ever been in that type of position. My trainer, Marvin Simms, there's something wrong with his leg right now. And he said, 'man, if your leg felt anything like my leg feels right now, then I can imagine how yours felt. I'm glad I stopped that fight because this is a killer.'"

Against Tszyu, Mitchell surprised casual fans with his command of the ring and ability to make the Australian bomber look ordinary at times. And all of this with a knee injury that almost prevented him from coming out from his dressing room before the fight. It's one of those things that you can hear in Mitchell's voice - a yearning where he would give it all away to get that night back with two good wheels.

"There wasn't any doubt in my mind (that night)," said Mitchell. "I caught him with good punches, and punches that hurt him. What made me upset was that I couldn't deliver the punch that I really wanted to deliver and shock the whole world. The thing about it is, people ask me all the time, 'Could he hit?' I can't tell you that. Vince Phillips told me that he was the hardest puncher he ever fought, but I can't tell you because he never hit me with a clean punch."

Once Tszyu, one of boxing's toughest customers, got the inkling that Mitchell wasn't 100 percent, he pounced, using all his experience to make Mitchell as miserable as possible, and finally force his retirement after round seven. And even Mitchell can grudgingly admire that he was in with a pro that took advantage of what was given him, and did what he had to do to get the W.

"I can't be mad at him because he did what he had to do to try to win the fight," said Mitchell. "If I had a really good referee it may have been different. I've asked different referees what they would have done in that situation where he was pushing me down and doing it deliberately. They said first they would have taken a point; the second time they would take another point, and a third time, you have to disqualify him or something, because he was doing it deliberately. You've been warned, you've lost points, and still you're doing the same thing. You disqualify him or if you don't go to the scorecards, you call it a draw or a no contest and go on to the next stage."

But Tszyu, a man who prides himself on respect, is unlikely to want to get in the ring again with a fighter who called him 'a bum' and said as much in comments to Australian media this week. It's the same situation for Tszyu and Judah, who he insisted would have to apologize for his own post-fight behavior if he wanted to be considered for a rematch. Call it tough love, or call it 'I did it once, and once is enough.' Either way, don't expect a rematch anytime soon, though Mitchell begs to differ.

"In the situation of making the money that he really wants to make, he only has maybe four guys in our weight class that are gonna make that kind of money," said Mitchell. "That's me, Gatti, Micky Ward, and Zab, who has put himself in that type of position. If he fights one of us, he's going to make that type of money. Other than that, you really don't have anyone in that weight class that can make you that type of money."

And money talks. But so does performance, and if Mitchell fights like he did against Phillips, he may get to the point where Tszyu can't ignore him. And that's why he still fights, well at least one of the reasons.

"I do it for my kids," admits Mitchell. "I have to take care of them, and I like to have big things in life. I like not to have any worries about anything, so that really keeps me going."

Rumors are in the air that Mitchell may next fight Hector Camacho Jr., and though the Maryland native says that he hasn't been approached about the bout, he says, "I would take that fight. I don't care who I fight."

Don't believe him. Sharmba Mitchell does care, and the one fight he does want is Tszyu. And a win would erase the doubts, erase the snide remarks, and gain him respect. That's never a bad thing.

"Over the years I think that the media hasn't given me my just due," said Mitchell. "There's so much politics in this boxing thing that a lot of guys that are good don't get the pub that they should. I think I'm one of the best fighters out there right now, and if I'm not with the right promoter, I won't get the pub that I deserve. All it is is politics."