Williams beats Ishida, Arreola stops Molina; Cloud decisions Campillio, More!

By Boxing News - 02/18/2012 - Comments

Image: Williams beats Ishida, Arreola stops Molina; Cloud decisions Campillio, More!By Jim Dower: No.1 WBC ranked heavyweight contender Chris Arreola (35-2, 30 KO’s) destroyed #10 WBC ranked contender Eric Molina (18-2, 14 KO’s) in the 1st round on Saturday night at the American Bank Center, Corpus Christi, Texas.

Arreola flattened Molina with a huge right hand that put him down for the count. The fight was halted at 2:10 of the 1st round. Molina failed to use his boxing skills to keep at a distance, which in hindsight he clearly should have done in this fight against the powerful Arreola.

Both Molina and Arreola were throwing huge bombs in the round, except that Arreola’s punches had a lot more power on them. This win was the 30-year-old Arreola’s seventh consecutive victory since being defeated by Tomasz Adamek in April 2010. Arreola would like a rematch with Adamek, but he may have to wait a while because Adamek has a fight scheduled already for March.

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In other heavyweight action, Malik Scott (33-0, 11 KO’s) kept his unbeaten record intact with an eight round unanimous decision over journeyman Kendrick Releford (22-16-2, 10 KO’s). The final judges’ scores were 79-73, 80-72 and 80-72. Scott needs to step it up one of these days against better opposition because it’s getting a little ridiculous to see him with this many wins still facing 2nd tier opposition.

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In something of an upset, once promising former fringe super middleweight contender Alfonso Lopez (22-3, 17 KO’s) was beaten by a six round unanimous decision in a huge upset against unheralded Justin Williams (4-5-1, 2 KO’s). The final judges scores were 57-56, 58-55 and 58-55. Williams took the fight to the slick Lopez much in the same way that Kelly Pavlik did in beating Lopez last May. However, Williams was a lot quicker than Pavlik and better at pressuring Lopez and forcing him to fight. For Lopez, this is his second consecutive loss having been beaten against Dyah Davis by a lopsided 10 round unanimous decision last month.

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IBF light heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud ( 25-0, 19 KO’s) struggled mightily to defeat former WBA World light heavyweight champion Gabriel Campillo (21-4-1, 8 KO’s) by a controversial 12 round split decision. The final judges’ scores were 116-112 and 114-112 for Cloud, and 115-111 for Campillo. I personally scored it for Campillo by a couple of rounds, as he landed more shots, and looked to be the better fighter and overall better skilled guy. Campillo’s no stranger to controversy, having lost his World Boxing Association title to Beibut Shumenov in January 2010 in a fight he appeared to win, and then last year being held to a controversial 12 round draw to Karo Murat in Germany in October. Campillo fought well enough to deserve a decision in that fight as well.

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Former WBO welterweight champion Paul Williams 41-2, 27 KO’s) won an impressive lopsided 12 round unanimous decision over Japan’s Nobuhiro Ishida (24-7-2, 9 KO’s) in what easily is the best performance for the 30-year-old Williams since he defeated Ronald “Winky” Wright by a one-sided 12 round decision in April 2009. The final judges’ scores for tonight’s Williams-Ishida fight were 120-108, 120-108 and 120-108. Ishida, who can’t punch at all, couldn’t keep up with the high work rate of Williams and found himself getting outworked in every round. Not only that. Williams was also the stronger puncher and hurt Ishida on a couple of occasions with looping right hooks and left hands. It was a really one-sided fight and it wasn’t unexpected because Ishida hasn’t done a whole lot with his career other than his big 1st round TKO upset of a rusty and out of shape James Kirkland last year.



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