Duan’s Boxing Breakdown – Winky Wright Vs. Paul Williams
When I asked Duan to start write for this site, I had no idea that he was such a knowledgeable boxing fan. I’ve been watching since I was a kid, but definitely fell off as a fan until the last two years. But Duan is one of the smartest boxing fans I know. He sent me his breakdown of Saturday’s HBO doubleheader.
Arreola vs. McCline
I find myself watching more and more heavyweight fights lately. It’s not because I enjoy it as most of them are awful. I just don’t want to give up on the division, and I’m determined to find some sign of life in it.
Chris Arreola has been a welcome change from the current flock of heavyweights. The guy is young, he is aggressive, and he has exciting fights. He’s got a good work rate for a big guy and he always presses for the knockout. That’s what people want to see in a heavyweight.
Sure he has his flaws. He tends to leave himself wide open, and even had to take some big shots here against McCline. He does look vulnerable at times, but that’s part of what makes his fights exciting.
His weight is another issue. It hasn’t really been a problem as of yet, but there has to be concerns over his conditioning as he moves up to the next level. It’s something he is going to need to work on immediately if he wants to fight for a world title.
But this fight with McCline is exactly what you can expect from him. He went in there, beat him up, and took him out in devastating fashion. It’s nice to see that back in the heavyweight division. As I said, he is not without his limitations, but it’s definitely encouraging to see.
Williams vs. Wright
Paul Williams’ performance was remarkable. A lot of people felt that Williams would come undone against a slick boxer the likes of Winky Wright. This was a tough test for him, and he just completely overwhelmed him.
I was almost certain beforehand that this fight would go to the judges. While watching the fight unfold, I didn’t believe Williams could work that pace for the full 12 rounds. I figured that either Wright would have to crack under the pressure, or Paul was going to punch himself out.
The Gumby Punch
Not only did Williams sustain his work rate, but he looked comfortable in doing so. You got the feeling he could have done 15 rounds without a bother. I have never seen anything like the volume of punches he dishes out. He was happy to miss five punches to connect with one all night. Wright is one of the smartest defensive boxers out there, and he just couldn’t deal with it. He never got an opportunity to get his own shots off because Williams just wouldn’t stop throwing.
No one has ever dominated Wright like that before, and Winky didn’t look like a shot fighter either. Williams was just outstanding. This is a guy who has mainly fought his career at welterweight, and he easily dismantled a great middleweight.
Physically, I think he’s best suited to fighting at junior middleweight, but he showed he’s more than capable of mixing it at 160. I feel that he can beat most guys in the division. My only concern is that he will be out-muscled by big middleweights like Pavlik or Abraham. But I still don’t think that either of them would be eager to be matched up with him. This guy is the real deal. People need to take notice.
Arreola has some skills, but to gain weight in every fight for the last year or two, that’s scary man.
Williams was awesome, but he’s kind of frustrating to watch because his opponent isn’t really fighting their fight. He’s so overwhelming that every fight is a Paul Williams fight no matter what.
I thought Wright put up a very commendable performance.
Yes, its annoying with Chris because he knows that its a problem himself. After the last fight, he said he was going to be straight back in to the gym to get it under control. Seemingly he just doesn’t have the discipline to watch his weight for any lenght of time. Maybe when he gets a big fight it will really motivate him to do something about it. His cardio seems to hold up much better than you would expect though.
I could still see Wright being a handful for a lot of guys out there.