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PENSACOLA
News
Journal

Sunday 2 November 2008

Williams continues charge
towards world title

Story by Jeff Brown

Middleweight boxer Holman Williams is fast becoming Pensacola's favourite son. Last night, in front of a capacity crowd at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, the slick man with the lightning hands systematically wore down former WBO junior-middleweight champion John Mugabi and scored a rare stoppage victory when the fight was halted one minute into the 10th round due to a nasty cut on the inside of Mugabi's left eyebrow. It had opened up early in round nine, the culmination of an accumulation of blows from Williams, who is not regarded for his punching power. He earlier achieved a feat that has also been rare for him during his time in the IBL, when a sustained flurry of punches dropped his Ugandan-born opponent for a three count late in the 8th round.

While Mugabi was able to catch Williams with an occasional hard shot, there simply weren't enough of them and when it was all over, the Florida native had outlanded him 292-131. It was #3-ranked Mugabi's first bout since being stopped by world champion Les Darcy in June. That fight also ended in the 10th round, so Mugabi (36-5-2(33)) has now lost in consecutive outings for the first time in his career. Williams came into the fight ranked at #7 and maintained the momentum he gained in an upset August victory over Rubin Carter. Not only will he move into the WCC top five, he could also find himself fighting for the world title in early 2009 if certain results go his way. Williams (22-3-2(11)) came painfully close to upsetting Jose Napoles back in March before losing by split decision, so it has been an almost perfect year for him.

They both have big fights coming up during the next few weeks, but that didn't stop former heavyweight world champion Terone Haynes and welterweight world title challenger James Ray accompanying Williams to the ring last night. Haynes takes on Germany's Mark Friedrich at the MGM Grand next Saturday in what is being spoken of as an unofficial world title eliminator while Ray squares off against world champion Emile Griffith at the same venue on November 22. It's a rematch of their classic stoush from June, which ended as a draw. Absent from Roy Jones's "Florida Alliance" stable were the International Conference competitors Elford Coles (welterweight) and Elmer Ray (junior-heavyweight), aswell as Haynes's fellow heavyweight WCC competitor/rival Romy Alvarez, who steps into the ring against Russia's Igor Berezutskiy in Chicago on November 15. No explanation was offered for their absence.

In the evening's co-feature, Mexico's former world featherweight champion Gilberto Vasquez guaranteed that he'll remain in the picture for a possible title bid in early 2009 with a dominant unanimous decision win over his compatriot Omar Calderon (118-107, 119-106, 118-107). It was Vasquez's second straight win since failing to regain the world title from Miguel Bautista in January. He defeated Italy's Loris Stecca in July, also by unanimous decision, in what was a much tougher contest than last night's one. Vasquez looked outstanding against Calderon, establishing control early and then flooring him in rounds eight and ten. Vasquez outlanded Calderon 351-157 and improved his record to 32-3-1(19). Calderon came to the IBL accompanied by a lot of hype and expectation but his next stop is the International Conference after an 0-3 year that saw his record fall to 23-4-2(14).