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Complete card: Jeison Rosario upsets Julian Williams,Chris Colbert wins, Cornflake stopped

Rosario spoils Williams homecoming

Ringside report by J.R.Jowett

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Rosario stops Williams
Rosario stops Williams

It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.

 

Premier Boxing Champions (Al Haymon) in association with Marshall Kauffman (Kings Prom’ns) brought Julian Williams home to Philadelphia for his first title defense, at Temple University’s Liacouras Center, on 1/18/20.

 

It should have been a romp over a setup, but it wasn’t. Williams, 153 ½, Phila., 27-2-1 (16), defended the WBA & IBF Jr. Middle (or Super Welter) title against Jeison Rosario, 153 ¼, Santo Domingo, 20-1-1 (14).

 

Williams opened smartly, attacking behind a tight defense that had the tall challenger coming forward into sharper punches. Williams bobbed and weaved to get through Rosario’s long reach in the second, but Jeison landed some good counters and a hard right late to edge the round.

 

In a close and hard fought third, Williams landed one solid right, but Rosario using his size and forcing the action, beginning to control the fight. Julian was pawing at his left eye as the round ended. Solid trading opened the fourth in which Williams landed some hard shots but was unable to gain control. The contest lapsed to long range sparring in which Rosario had the edge.

 

Then came round five.

 

Julian again opened with heated trading, trying to get Rosario out of there or take control of the action. But a left hook at the end of an exchange visibly wobbled Julian and Jeison seized the opportunity. Rosario poured it on with both hands, landing shot after shot.

 

The wobbly favorite tried desperately to stay in the fight, sliding along the ropes and trying to grab before finally being wrestled to the canvas on one knee. It wasn’t ruled a knockdown but Julian took all the time in the world as referee Benjy Esteves coaxed him off the floor and the anxious fans hoped he’d be able to escape to the bell. He didn’t.

 

Rosario immediately hammered him, with a booming right uppercut snapping him back into the ropes, barely able to remain upright. Benjy stopped it, and it was only 1:37 into the round. Angry Philly fans pelted the ring with debris, but it was a good stop. Julian had absorbed something like a dozen clean, solid blows.

 

Williams commented, “I have to accept it. The cut blurred my vision a little bit but it wasn’t the reason why I lost. He was the better fighter tonight.” Rosario added, “When I lost my last fight I said I will never lose again…Thanks to Philadelphia and to Julian Williams.”

The co-feature 12 was a dreadful contest that numbed the booing crowd for nine rounds before lurching to a rocky and ragged finish in the final three. Chris Colbert, 129 ¾, Brooklyn, 14-0 (5), faced Jezreel Corrales, 129 ½, San Miguelito, Panama, 23-4 (9), for some fabricated title not worth the mention. Neither seemed to have much of a fight plan but profiled while waiting for the other to make some mistake.

 

The booing started as early as the third, when both were standing and tensely looking at each other, waiting for the other to commit. They began intermittent mauling in the fourth, with the bigger Colbert picking up the southpaw Jezreel when he tried to clinch. Colbert switched southpaw in the fifth, cutting an odd stance with both arms extended, trying to draw Jezreel into an exchange. The crowd booed. This cat and mouse game continued through the ninth, only an occasional clean shot here and there between the styling and sucker moves.

 

Then suddenly in the tenth, as they began fighting inside instead of standing out of arms’ length, Colbert pushed off and brought over a left hook and right to drop Corrales. At last the fans had some action and something meaningful happened. Jezreel wasn’t badly hurt and the rest of the round was spent in aggressive mauling, but at least there was something for the fans. This inside warfare continued through the eleventh, ending with Chris throwing a clutching Jezeel out of the ring like something from WWF. Colbert threw him down again in the twelfth, then tried to help him up.

 

A bad fight, but Colbert did land more of the scattered clean punches in most of the rounds. Dave Braslow scored 116-111, Steve Weisfeld and Dewey LaRosa 117-110, unanimous for Colbert. Shawn Clark refereed.

 

The winner explained, “Slowly but surely I decided to stop boxing, close the distance and get on him.” Explained Corrales, “The knockdown wasn’t from being hurt, it was my balance. Our feet got tangled and I lost my balance.”

 

Debuting Miguel Angel Roman, Jr., 118 ½, Phila., earned a unanimous decision over gritty Antonio Lucaine, 119 ¾, Mt Vernon, NY, 0-3, in the opening four. Roman set the pace in good trading and dropped Lucaine to nail it down in the third. A short right rocked Antonio and Miguel stayed on the attack until a left hook sent Lucaine down. Antonio fought gamely to finish the fight and put up an active fourth round. Adam Friscia scored 40-35, La Rosa and Justin Rubenstein 39-36. There was virtually no one in the house except the fight people at this point.

 

Norman Neely, 241 ½, Paterson, 5-0 (5), took the fight to blubbery Larry Knight, 250 ¼, Birmingham, GA, 4-23-1 (1), and belted him out in 1:21 of the opening round of four. Knight kept up a high and tight guard but it didn’t help him as the poised favorite shot straight punches between the gloves.

 

After a two-hand bombardment in a neutral corner, the underdog slumped to a knee as referee Dali was breaking the fighters, and made no effort to arise while seemingly acting like he had a hurt left shoulder. There were maybe a hundred fans here by this time, the second bout.

 

Kyrone Davis, 159 ¼, Monmouth, DE, 15-2 (6), stopped Antonio Todd, 157 ¾, Atlanta, 7-3 (4), in 2:28 of the fourth of eight. The contest was a tight sparring match for three rounds, with Davis controlling with judicious use of the left. In the fourth, it was time. Kyrone moved in a step and began to apply pressure in solid trading. At first, Antonio answered back. But he was steadily getting the worst of it and began giving ground while punching less and covering more as Davis dug slick, short shots to body and head. Finally, Todd was unraveling and absorbing excessive punishment though still upright and referee Gary Rosato stopped it.

 

It looked like a good local showdown when Paul Kroll, 148 ¾, Phila., 7-0 (6), stepped in the ring against Marcel Rivers, 147 ¼, Phila., 7-3 (4), for a scheduled eight. But Marcel missed a lead right in the opening exchange, Paul buckled his knees with a short counter right, and that changed everything. Rivers circled cautiously from that point while Kroll relaxed into his fight and gradually increased momentum. In the third, he upped the ante and dropped Rivers with the same right again. Marcel ducked and dodged his way out of the round. Then in the fourth, Kroll let it all go. He trapped Rivers in his own corner, fired a combo to the body and crossed the right to the head to send Marcel down.

 

Then at center ring, Rivers tried to step away to his right and was caught by a sweeping left hook and dropped. Finally, hammered along the ropes, a right to the body buckled Marcel and he nearly went down before straightening back up. That was enough for ref Esteves, who stopped it at 0:49.

 

Romuel Cruz, 122 ¼, Arecibo, PR, 4-0-1 (2), blew out Julio Garcia, 123 ¼, Madison, WI, 3-4 (2), in 2:56 of the fifth of a scheduled four. Cruz stepped in smartly with a short right uppercut to send Garcia to a knee for the first knockdown. Then another short, sharp right dropped him again and when he got up pawing his right eye and showing little interest in continuing, Benjy stopped it.

 

Enormously popular Vito Mielnicki, 146, Roseland, NJ, 4-0 (3), gained little improvement in his stock with a lackluster unanimous shutout of Preston Wilson, 146 ¼, Parkersburg, WV, 146 ¼, 6-4-1 (4), four. The lanky southpaw underdog made no attempt at boxing or even fighting but just styled and profiled his way through an actionless contest.

 

It was a shock to see one on New Jersey’s most popular boxers of recent years, Thomas “Cornflake” LaManna, in the loser’s corner. It was a bigger shock when Jorge Cota, 153 ¼, Sinaloa, MX, 30-4 (27), stopped LaManna, 153 ½, Belleville, 28-3-1 (10), in 1:22 of the fifth of a scheduled 10. The stocky Mexican southpaw bored right in and roasted Cornflake’s ribs along the ropes in the first. But when LaManna got some room and landed long rights to take a good-action second, it looked like a solid contest was developing.

 

Cota came back in a heated third by getting off with sharp combos without having to step all the way inside. Then in the fourth, he brought the action in tight again and by round’s end, LaManna was holding and appeared to be fading. In the fateful fifth, Cornflake could not hold Cota at bay as the Mexican was ripping away with inside uppercuts and snapping Cornflake’s head. Abruptly, referee Rosato stepped in and stopped it as fans booed and the bloodied and heartbroken Cornflake collapsed in a corner. But it was a good stop.

 

Erik Spring is a tough guy to look good against, and Joey Spencer didn’t. In a dreadfully dull six, Spencer, 155 ¾, Linden, MI, 10-0 (7), got a unanimous shutout of Spring, 155, Reading, 13-4-2 (1). The spindly southpaw Spring kept his right arm extended like a tree branch guarding the leprechaun’s pot of gold. It was enough to hold Spencer at bay, but Joey, a Wally Cleaver lookalike, forced what little action there was and landed enough to win clearly. Julie Elizabeth Lederman, Kevin Morgan and Marc Werlinsky all scored 60-54.

 

Commented the frustrated winner, “When a guy is fighting as cagey as he was, it’s really hard for a guy with my style to just pull something out of nothing.” Spring admitted, “I was waiting too much.”

 

And after all this, with the building nearly vacant save the boxing people, Jose Luis Gallegos, 133, Chicago, 19-8 (14), and Ricky Lopez, 130 ½, Colorado Springs, 21-5-1 (6), put on a plain old good fight over eight rounds. The decidedly bigger Gallegos stalked and pressured the much smaller Lopez, but Ricky got into a groove with counter punches while he circled and stayed very much in the fight. Then early in the third, Gallegos stepped in with a short, sharp right and dropped him. But Ricky circled and countered and stayed in the fight. The fourth was hectic, Gallegos stalking and picking his punches while Lopez circled and countered. The fifth was another close round but Gallegos was making the fight with his pressure.

 

Then in the sixth, it seemed to catch up to Jose Luis as he slowed a step and Lopez could really get his counters working. This continued through the seventh, but both fought hard to close the show in a rugged final round. Werlinsky scored 76-75, Rubenstein and Friscia 77-74, unanimous for Gallegos. Eric Dali refereed.

 

Jimmy Lennon Jr and Miguel Flores were ring announcers and Alice Grady and Fred Blumstein kept time. The card was telecast on Fox.

 

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