Terrel ‘Tyger’ Williams, left, hurt his opponent bad with a right hand and the fight was quickly over, giving Williams another first round knockout. Photo by Jason Lewis
Terrel “Tyger” Williams remains undefeated
Los Angeles native Terrel Williams improved his record to 6-0 with another first round knockout. Five of his six victories have come by the way of knockout, and four of those came in the first round. For a tall and lanky fighter, Williams packs a punch that is putting fighters down quickly, and the fight fans at Florentine Gardens in Hollywood looked on in amazement as Williams made short work of another opponent.
Williams’ welterweight opponent, Lawrence Hughes from St. Louis, Mo, came into the fight with a 4-4 record, but Williams was not taking him lightly.
“I knew that he was going to swing shots at me,” Williams said. “He started out his career as an undefeated prospect with four wins and four knockouts, but he lost his last four. I went into the fight with the mind frame that he was trying to get his career back on track, so I prepared properly.”
Williams knew that his opponent had knockout power, but he was confident in his defense, which came in handy as Hughes threw looping punches. In one instance, Williams simply put up his left hand to block a Hughes right hand to the head, and then Williams followed it up with a devastating right hand of his own.
“He didn’t catch me at all,” Williams said. “Thanks to (trainer) Shaheed Suluki, because he brought my defense up. I was always an offensive fighter, and I relied on my offense 99 percent of the time. Now I can get in there and block shots. It saves my legs because I don’t have to move as much. Before I was outgunning my opponents and getting out of the way. Now I can relax, bob and weave, catch roll, whatever. It makes the fight a lot easier.”
Defense set up Williams’ offense in the fight, and it was a wrap from there.
“I hit him with a big right hand,” Williams said. “I saw him on shaky legs, but I did not rush in for the kill really quick. I wanted to be poised because I knew that he was a big puncher. I was placing my punches correctly and it got the job done.”
Suluki has high praises for his fighter.
“Terrel has fast hands, he’s smart, punches real good, and he caught the boy with a good right hand,” Suluki said. “He’s going to do that a lot. A lot of people call him the hitman (in reference to Tommy Hearns). He’s tall, rangy, skinny, but he hits hard. That’s the fourth first round knockout that he’s had. He’s a puncher. He punches fast and hard. He’s hitting these boys and he’s hurting them. He catches you with one shot, catches you slipping, and you’re out of there. Just like what happened tonight. His opponent did not see the right hand coming.”
Suluki believes that Williams is on a fast track, which is why he has been so active as of late. Williams has fought three times over the past three months, twice at Florentine Gardens on fight cards promoted by Bash Boxing and The Art of Boxing Promotions. Because his fights have been so quick, and he has not taken very many punches, Williams plans to get right back in the ring as early as October, possibly in Hollywood again.
After taking the weekend off, Williams was right back in the gym on Monday, because he is dedicated to his craft and he is not wasting any time.
Pacquiao puts ball in Mayweather’s court
The Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao mega fight has had numerous stumbling blocks, but it appears that Pacquiao is willing to clear them.
Mayweather’s first demand was Olympic style drug testing. At first Pacquiao was against it, but eventually he said that he would go through the strict drug testing to make this fight happen.
The most recent snag was how the fighters would split the money, which could be upwards of $100 million. Initially Mayweather agreed to a 50-50 split, but later offered to pay Pacquiao a flat fee of $40 million for the fight. In that proposal, Pacquiao would not share in the revenue, which would be worth more than a $40 million share.
Pacquiao declined that offer, but now he has said that he is willing to agree to a 55-45 split, with Mayweather earning the larger share.
At this point, the only thing stopping this fight that the public has longed for is Mayweather. Pacquiao has given in to Mayweather’s demands, so there are no more excuses. It is time to make this fight happen.
Before it can happen, Pacquiao has to win a fourth fight with Juan Manuel Marquez in December, which could put the mega fight in jeopardy.
In their last bout many fight fans thought that Marquez won, but the judges ruled in favor of Pacquiao. If Marquez wins the fight, that would mean that Pacquiao will have lost two consecutive fights, which would take all of the luster off of a potential mega fight.
Tim Bradley, who was looking to be Pacquiao’s opponent in December, defeated Pacquiao in a fight that everybody outside of two of the three judges had Pacquiao winning in a landslide. Marquez was able to get the Pacquiao fight over Bradley because Pacquiao did not feel that the public wanted to see another one-sided fight against Bradley. One other reason why Bradley was snubbed was because Pacquiao and Marquez are both promoted by Top Rank, so the promotion company will not have to split the purse with another promotion company.
