Herrera Stops Williams

By Boxing News - 05/25/2008 - Comments

By William MacKay: Previously unbeaten cruiserweight prospect Aaron Williams (17-1-1, 12 KOs) was stopped in the 5th round by Colombian knockout artist Jose Luis Herrera (16-4, 16 KOs) of a scheduled 10-round at the Twin River Event Center, in Lincoln, Rhode Island on Wednesday night. Williams, 22, went into the bout heavily favored, mostly due to his unblemished professional record and his impressive amateur career where he was a 9-time U.S. amateur champion, and a Gold medal winner in the 2003 U.S. National PAL Championships. However, despite his impeccable credentials, Williams had been matched soft for his entire three year professional career, put in with fighters that would quickly fold in a round or two after getting hit with his blazing fast shots.

Williams had never had to have his chin tested, because only a small handful of his opponents were able to make it to the distance, even those were opponents with little power with which to worry Williams. That all changed on Wednesday night, when ESPN matched Williams up with a flawed, yet very powerful, Colombian Jose Luis Herrera, who came into the fight with a perfect record of 16 wins with 16 knockouts. However, as powerful as he was with his fists, his chin was his Achilles hill, making him vulnerable to big punchers.

Though he had been beaten three out of his last four fights coming into his fight with Williams on Wednesday night, Herrera had only been beaten by big punchers, and was better than his record would indicate. Williams, though a fighter with a lot of knockouts on his record, wasn’t a particularly hard puncher, a fighter instead who tends to get his knockouts by an accumulation of fast shots.

Early in the 1st round, Williams, perhaps thinking that Herrera’s chin was as weak as his record might indicate, came after him hard, landing a flurry of shots. After a about a minute, Williams’ lightning fast blitz paid off when he dropped Herrera to the canvas with a left hook to the head. Before that, Williams had landed a ton of shots to the head of Herrera for the first minute of the round, ending with a flurry of shots while he was trapped against the ropes.

Showing a better chin than what people expected, Herrera got up off the deck and weathered a huge storm of shots from Williams, who landed a huge amount of shots to the head of Herrera for the remainder of the round. However, in doing so, Williams, normally an economical puncher, seemed to tire out a little in the process. In between rounds, he was breathing hard and looking more than a little gassed.

In the 2nd round, Williams slowed way down, taking his time and throwing mainly jabs and occasionally a quick flurry of punches. None of them were the type that Herrera usually has trouble with, however, and he was able to take the shots without much trouble. Herrera could perhaps see that Williams was a tired, which seem to give him confidence as he finally started letting his hands go in the final 30 seconds of the round, hitting Williams with several big right hands. This was a prelude to things to come, as Williams seemed a little less courageous after tasting those right hands.

In the 3rd round, Williams continued pasting Herrera with right hands, quick combinations that he’d fire off in a rapid fire manner. However, Herrera would every once in a while land a big looping right hand to the head of Williams, getting his attention. In the last minute of the round, Herrera landed several powerful left hooks and right hands to the head of Williams. It seemed that Herrera was getting more and more confident as the fight wore on, especially with the fight slowed down to a snail’s pace.

This was something that benefited Herrera, whose hand speed wasn’t nearly as fast as Williams. With the fight now moving slowly, it allowed Herrera to trade punches with Williams rather than absorbing a massive amount of shots like he did in the 1st round. At the same time, Herrera’s punches were a lot harder and it was clear that unless Williams was very careful – or unless he pushed to take him out – there were going to be more and more chances for Herrera to score a knockout of his own.

After Herrera started off particularly well with some hard right hands in the 4th round, this seemed to light a fire under Williams, who then seemed to make a tactical change to start using his jab to create distance. It worked well for about a minute until Herrera showed that he was equally good at throwing a jab, perhaps even a little better than Williams in that department.

In the 5th round, the fight suddenly had a different look to it altogether, as it was Herrera now who was throwing and landing most of the punches, and his punches were very hard in comparison to the quick but weak shots from Williams, who was looking still winded from the 1st round. Williams attempted to back Herrera up to the ropes with a series of jabs. It worked somewhat until Herrera suddenly returned fire with a powerful right hand that hurt Williams, causing him to back up, his flopping and his arms dangling as if he were drunk.

Herrera quickly fired off another big right hand, this one even more powerful, which snapped Williams head back and sent him backwards towards the rope. Herrera followed after him, at which point Williams grabbed him in a clinch, trying to buy time to clear his head. Herrera, however, was having none of it and quickly broke free and fired off two shots, both of which connected to the side of Williams’ head, sending him falling into ropes for a knockout. The referee then gave him a standing eight count upon Williams getting up. Looking really out of it, like he’d taken one too many head shots, Williams looked all around the ring, his eyes barely able to focus as the referee gave him the count.

I suppose the referee wanted to give the benefit of the doubt, perhaps due to Williams being the heavy favorite, and allowed him to continue despite his hurt appearance. As soon as the action resumed, Herrera tagged Williams with a left hand, then a big right hand, causing him to stumble and walk away on very unsteady feet. With Herrera in close pursuit, Williams suddenly took a knee, at which point Herrera threw a left that missed and then a right hand that connected to the head of Williams while he was on one knee. The punch didn’t appear to be all that hard, and didn’t cause Williams any more trouble than he was already in.

At that point the referee had Williams looked at by the ringside doctor, who after making a quick examination decided that Williams was in no condition to continue and that the fight should be stopped. Officially, the bout was stopped by referee Charles Dwyer at 1:58 of the 5th round. For Williams, this was a major blow for he was moving quickly, working his way up the cruiserweight ranks.