Julian Williams vs. Ishe Smith – Results

By Boxing News - 11/19/2017 - Comments

Image: Julian Williams vs. Ishe Smith - Results

By Stanley White: Junior middleweight Julian “J-Rock” Williams (24-1-1, 15 KOs) added another win to his resume on Saturday night in beating former world champion Ishe Smith (29-9, 12 KOs) by one-sided 10 round unanimous decision on Premier Boxing Champions on Bounce at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Smith, 39, was cut twice above his left eye from head clashes in round 2 and 7. Neither fighter was hurt during the contest other than Smith’s cut eye.

The judges scored it 99-91, 98-92, and 97-93. Boxing News 24 scored it for Williams 97-93. Smith didn’t do nearly enough for him to deserve the victory.

The outcome was never in doubt, as Smith didn’t have the fire power to really do much in the fight. Smith fought well enough to win rounds 5, 6 and 9. Other than that, it was Williams controlling the fight with his jab and his hard right hands.

Williams landed some excellent body shots and right hands in every round of the fight. He showed good power in nailing Smith with right hands. Williams’ hand speed left a lot to be desired, but he was still fast enough to get the victory over the aging Smith.

Smith didn’t give up in the right. He was working hard until the very end, hoping he could get back into the fight. Williams had too much speed and power for Smith to compete against unfortunately. If this was a less talented fighter than Williams, Smith would have won the fight.

Smith wasted any chance he ever had to win the fight by starting too slowly in the rounds. Smith gave Williams too much respect, and let the fight slip away in the first 5 rounds. By the time Smith started to rally in the second half, he needed multiple knockdowns for him to have had any chance of winning the fight. Since Smith isn’t a big puncher, he wasn’t able to make up lost ground in the fight and ended up losing.

Williams got the victory, but he showed the same flaws in his game that he exhibited in his 5th round knockout loss to former IBF junior middleweight champion Jermall Charlo last year. Williams is still easy to hit, and he lunges in too much when throwing power shots. Jermall took advantage of that last year in nailing Williams with big uppercuts when he would attack him.

With the win, Williams moves on and will likely get pushed up the rankings a little with the World Boxing Council. As for Smith, it was his 4th defeat in his last 8 fights. He’s 4-4 in that time frame since 2013.

It’s unclear what Smith is looking to accomplish with the remaining time on his boxing career. Surely, this loss to Williams should be a big hint that he doesn’t have the skills any longer for him to be a relevant fighter in the division. Smith is getting beaten a little much now, and it might not be worth it for him to stick around.

Other boxing results on tonight’s Williams vs. Smith card:

Lionell Thompson UD 10 Earl Newman

Tugstsogt Nyambayar UD 8 Harmonito Dela Torre