Has Brian Minto's ship finally come in?

If it has, it may be docking in Germany for a while.

The Butler heavyweight boxer raised his stock in the ring with his recent sixth-round technical knockout of German icon Axel Schulz in the latter's home country.

No longer promoted by Duva Boxing — that contract expired in October — Minto is a 31-year-old boxing free agent who is content to stay that way.

Longtime manager Pat Nelson continues to be his matchmaker And Minto is unconcerned about finding matches.

"I don't see it being a problem," he said of staying on his own. "If somebody comes along and opens up his checkbook with a nice bonus, sure, I'd listen.

"But people are contacting me about matches now, so something will happen."

That something may well be in Germany again. Boxing is a bigger sport there. The crowds are bigger and more revenue is generated.

And boxing is more than a sport to Minto. It's his job.

"I have to look at it as a business,"he said. "If it's (financially) worth my while, I'll go back over there."

Most sports fans in the United States would be hard pressed to name boxing's current heavyweight champions. Familiar names like Muhammad Ali, George Foreman and Joe Frazier are long gone.

Guys like Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson won't go away because no marketable names ever emerged to replace them.

Two of boxing's current heavyweight champs are from overseas. The No. 1-ranked heavyweight and IBFchampion is 30-year-old Wladimir Klitschko from Ukraine. He is 47-3 with 42 knockouts and recently scored a seventh-round TKOover previously unbeaten Calvin Brock, a sparring partner of Minto's.

The combined won-loss record of Klitschko's last four opponents — and he defeated them all — is 110-2-2.

The WBAchampion is Nikolay Valuev from Russia. Ranked No. 3 in the world, he is 45-0 with 33 knockouts. He has a title defense against Jameel McCline scheduled for Jan. 20.

Valuev is 7 feet tall and weighs more than 300 pounds. Minto is 5-11 and weighs about 215.

"I'd look silly standing next to him in the ring, but I'd fight him,"Minto said.

At this stage of his career, Minto will fight anyone pretty much anywhere.

"Anything I do at this point is geared toward fighting for a title back here (in the states)," he said. "That's the ultimate goal. Beating Schulz was a big win for me. It opened some doors."

Minto is ranked 26th in the world by boxrec.com. He's knocking on the door for a top-20 ranking by boxing's more prominent sanctioning bodies.

At age 31, he already qualifies under the "local boy makes good"category.

He may wind up earning the headline:"Local boy becomes champ."

Such a possibility must now be acknowledged as realistic — and that alone is an accomplishment.