Huge upset sends the Cruiserweight contender back to the drawing board.
By: Christopher Roche
Everything started out great last night for “Awesome” Aaron Williams. He was fighting on National Television, against a late replacement opponent, who had to gain 25 pounds to qualify for this match.
The cards were stacked in Williams’ favor, as he looked to cash in, on his way to a title shot in the Cruiserweight division.
In front of a partisan crowd, Williams predictably knocked Jose Luis Herrera all over the ring in the first round. Near the end of the frame, Herrera crumbled to the canvas, under a barrage of Williams’ artillery, and the fight appeared headed for an early stoppage. Teddy Atlas began screaming that this was a “blowout”, and he repeated his usual mantra that the commission should not have let this fight happen.
The only problem with the script was that Herrera did not read it. He rose from the canvas and started to fight back.
Williams, who has a terrible habit of slipping to his right and bending down way too far, began getting careless. By the third round, Herrera started finding a home for his right hand, and Williams appeared gassed from all of the punches he threw early on. Once the commentators started watching the fight again, they picked up on the growing confidence of Herrera, and at the start of the fifth, Atlas emphasized the shift in momentum.
About midway through the fifth, Herrera landed a hard right hand to Williams’ temple, and Williams legs began operating in separate directions. Herrera drilled Williams against the ropes, and the referee stepped in and ruled a knockdown, since the ropes held him up. Williams took the eight count, but he was very shaky.
After the count, Herrera charged Williams, and Williams dropped to one knee. Upon seeing this, the referee immediately summoned the Doctor, and the Doctor recommended that the fight be stopped. Williams was waved off at 1:58 of round five.
The 22 year-old Williams, who fights out of Las Vegas, dropped to 17-1-1, 12 KO’s. Herrera, 28, of Clombia, improved to 16-4, 16 KO’s. Herrera is still yet to go the distance, as all 20 of his fights have ended before the final bell.