Before the Williams vs. Phillips fight, Chris Arreola and Travis Walker fought toe to toe for just over two rounds. Walker looked great in the first round and the early parts of the second. He even put Arreola to a knee. Walker’s mouth piece fell out and the referee stopped the fight to put it back in. After that, it was all Arreola. He decked Walker twice in the second round and then in the third round, he dropped him flat with a left hook and that’s all she wrote. Arreola looked very heavy and slow, but talent wise, he was the better fighter. He probably needs to drop some pounds, but it didn’t matter on this night.
Paul Wiliams vs. Verno Phillips
Williams just fought two months ago on Versus and is already back in the ring. It’s not like he had to work very hard.
R1
Williams is huge. Phillips caught him with a left hook that didn’t seem to bother him. Bob Papa just said that Phillips is a 21 year pro and he’s only been stopped once. Williams is cut over his right eye from a headbutt. Phillips landed the two best punches of the round, but Williams probably out-landed him 2-1.
R2
Williams landed a big left while Phillips was coming inside. Phillips is putting his head down and diving into his overhand right. I think he’s surprising Williams with his aggressiveness. They had a great flurry near the ropes at the end of the round. Williams was teeing off and Phillips was punching out of it.
R3
The blood was flowing last round, but it seems under control. Williams is really digging into Phillips’ body. And the blood is flowing again. The referee stopped the fight to get the doctor to check on it and the doctor just looked at it and said it was good. This was Williams’ best round. He was very much in control.
R4
Williams is methodically chopping him down. Phillips isn’t nearly as active in round four as he was in round one. Willams’ cardio is fantastic. Phillips tries to take a breath and Williams is all over him. Phillips went down from a slip.
R5
Williams is punishing Phillips with the body shots. Phillips is game, but he’s taking a beating. The only thing that wrong with Williams is that cut over the eye keeps bleeding. Easy round for Williams and Phillips is tiring badly from the body shots.
R6
More of the same, though neither guy has been as active. Williams staggered Phillips near the end and had there been another thirty seconds, it might’ve been over. Williams might be pitching a shut out. I can see Phillips maybe winning the second, but that’s it.
R7
Williams slipped and both guys went down. That could’ve been dangerous the way they fell. Williams had him back up against the ropes for most of the round and was banging him like a heavy bag. Phillips landed two good shots, but they were Hail Mary punches.
R8
It was a pretty sloppy round until the last thirty seconds or so and Williams was just laying into him. There were a couple times where I thought Phillips was dazed, but it didn’t take Williams out of his game plan and he continued to bang the body.
It looks like the doctor has stopped it. Papa thought it was because of Williams’ eye, but it was because of all the punishment Phillips had taken.
Winner: Paul Williams by way of 8th round TKO.
Paul Williams is a beast with boxing gloves on.
Good Fight, I don’t know if anyone will want to fight Williams at welterweight or junior middleweight. He’s absolutely huge and has excellent skills to go with it. He’s a really awkward match up for anyone, there would be certainly easier routes to take to get a title.
John Duddy was meant to get a shot at Phillips title a couple of months back, but the fight fell through. I think that would have been a good fight for him. It will be interesting to see if he still drops down to light middle now that that fight is gone, or will he stay where he is and work towards a shot at Pavlik instead.
On the broadcast you watched did it show Shawn Estrada’s pro debut?
I was just telling Big D that Williams fights right in De La Hoya’s weight class, but De La Hoya wants no part of him. Tall and left handed?
I didn’t see anything about Estrada. I turned it off right after the Williams fight. How’d he do?
Yeah, i only got to see the main event myself. I heard he won in the first round by KO. Demetrius Andrade was fighting on a different card last night to. He won by KO in the 4th round. That was his second pro bout. I saw his debut a few weeks back and he looked excellent. I thought he was the best boxer on the American team and just had a bad night in the quarter finals.
Deontay Wilder also fought on the undercard of Jermain’s bout a couple of weeks back. I wasn’t too impressed with him in the Olympics. I thought he was quite lucky to medal, but he looks good as a pro. He hasn’t been boxing all that long so he’s probably still improving very rapidly. He picked his punches very well and showed good speed and movement for a heavyweight.
One of our medalists Darren Sutherland has his first pro fight in a couple of weeks. He lost in the middleweight semi finals to James Degale of England, who also eliminated Shawn Estrada, and went on to take gold. Darren’s style is better suited to being a pro as he’s a big puncher, and likes to throw a lot of body shots which generally don’t get scored in amateur. I think he will do very well for himself.