By Jim Dower: Using a powerful body attack, unbeaten light welterweight prospect Vernon Paris (25-0, 15 KO’s) stopped contender Tim Coleman (19-1-1, 5 KO’s) in the 7th round of a scheduled 10 round bout on Friday night at the Chumash Casino in Santa Ynez, California. Paris, 23, knocked the 27-year-old Coleman down twice in the 6th with body shots and once in the 7th round with another body shot to get the stoppage. Referee Dan Stell stopped the fight at 0:27 of the 7th following a knockdown from a left hand from Paris.
Coleman, ranked #5 IBF, #14 WBA in the light welterweight division, started off the fight strong, knocking Paris down with a huge right hand in the 2nd round. However, Paris showed early on that he could hurt Coleman when going to the body by landing some powerful body shots at the end of the 1st round that hurt Coleman. In the 2nd, Coleman came back with hard shots that culiminated with him knocking Paris down.
Paris took over the fight in the 3rd with his powerful combinations and his constant pressure. He stayed in close firing off big shots to the head and body that Coleman was uncomfortable with. Coleman kept answering with hard shots of his own but he didn’t have the size or the power to compete with the bigger 5’7″ Paris. It’s unclear how tall Coleman is but he looked at least two inches shorter than the 5’7″ Paris. That’s worrisome because a 5’5″ light welterweight without much power is going to have problems against the bigger and stronger fighters.
Coleman and Paris both traded big shots in the 4th, making it difficult to pick the winner of the round. Paris was backed to the ropes at one point in the round and took a lot of hard shots while fighting there. It wasn’t the smartest move. Coleman landed a hard counter right hand near the end of the round that really got Paris’ attention.
Paris wore Coleman down in the 5th with his constant pressure and high punch output. Coleman’s punch output dropped off this round, as he was now only answering back with occasional hard pot shots to the head.
In the 6th, Paris started throwing more body shots that clearly took the energy out of Coleman and affected him. As soon as Paris realized that Coleman was no longer able to handle the body shots, he kept it up until dropping him with a beautiful left to the body. Coleman got back to his feet but continued to get hit with body shots and was dropped for a second time with only seconds to go in the round. He made it back to his feet and the round ended shortly thereafter.
Paris went right after Coleman in the 7th, landing a right hand to the head following body two lefts to the body that put Coleman down for the third and final time. The referee then halted the fight.
In other action on the card:
Art Hovhannesyan TD 4 Cristobal Cruz
Mike Faragon TKO 2 Ira Terry
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