CORPUS CHRISTI, Tex. – Paul “The Punisher” Williams burst on the scene years ago as a gangly, volume-punching giant whom no manager wished to match his fighter against. That made him entertaining. He is the same man today. But no one is entertained by it any longer.
In the main event of Saturday’s “Triple Threat” card from American Bank Center Arena, Williams (41-2, 27 KOs) beat Japanese super welterweight Nobuhiro Ishida (24-7-2, 9 KOs) by shutout scores of 120-108, 120-108, 120-108. Not one of the three judges scored a round for Ishida. And not one of the fans attending Saturday’s card seemed to care.
“This win feels really good,” Williams nevertheless said afterward.
Through the opening quarter of Saturday’s main event, an awkward nine minutes that saw the fighters’ limbs entangle, dropping Ishida twice on non-knockdowns, Williams was the slightly busier and more aggressive man, though Ishida gave little ground.
Round 4 found Williams finally landing effective punches, employing several times a right hook-left cross combination that backed Ishida up. After more of the same in round 5, Williams allowed Ishida to come inside in the sixth. Once inside, though, Ishida found that wasn’t necessarily where he wanted to be, as Williams, a much better in-fighter than his frame anticipates, continued to land.
And so it went.
As the crowd slowly deflated and American Bank Center Arena’s energy went away, Williams-Ishida went from main event to walk-out bout, regardless of the concerted effort both men made. When the final bell rang, the arena was quiet as it had been when the doors opened five hours earlier.
“We’re going to make it back to the top again,” Williams said, though by then the arena had emptied.
TAVORIS CLOUD VS. GABRIEL CAMPILLO
Dressed like a tiger, IBF light heavyweight titlist Tavoris “Thunder” Cloud walked into something of a lion’s den, Saturday, fighting Gabriel “Chico Guapo” Campillo, a tricky southpaw Spaniard, before a partisan-Spanish-speaking crowd, and emerging with his title but lots of controversy.
The three official judges disagreed on what happened in many of the rounds, turning in split-decision cards of 116-110, 111-115 and 114-112 for Cloud. The 15rounds.com ringside scorecard, too, had the match for the champion, 114-113.
“He was the busier fighter, and that is what the crowd here in Corpus Christi responded to,” said Cloud, in explanation for the crowd’s vociferous disapproval of the official result.
From the opening bell, Cloud (24-0, 19 KOs) wasted no time whatever, charging out his corner and cracking Campillo (21-4-1, 7 KOs) with a lunging right cross that dropped the handsome Spaniard in the fight’s opening two minutes. Cloud would drop Campillo again with a barrage of rights and lefts, 30 seconds later, winning the first round 10-7.
“He won the first round,” Campillo said afterwards. “But after that, I dominated.”
Campillo proved his mettle in the second round. Having risen from the blue mat twice in the opening stanza, Campillo outboxed Cloud, catching him with left uppercuts and right hooks from his southpaw stance and then outclassing him with slick movement in the third.
Rounds 4, 5 and 6 found Cloud, still bemused by Campillo’s tricky style, pressing forward with greater aggressiveness, no longer retreating to the ropes and trying to set traps. Still, Campillo had the better movement and more accurate punches, while some sting appeared to come off Cloud’s blows.
The fight’s most even round, its seventh, saw a cut over Cloud’s left eye begin to bleed and cause the referee to take a double look after each clinch. The blood flowed even more loosely in the eighth, after a sustained assault by Campillo backed the champion into a corner. Cloud fought back when pressed, but Campillo’s left-uppercut lead was a riddle Cloud never solved all night.
After a trip to the doctor’s corner midway through the 11th caused Cloud to fear the fight could be stopped on account of his left eye, Cloud increased his aggressiveness three-fold, narrowly winning the championship rounds on two of the three judges’ cards.
“I felt like I won the fight,” Cloud said of his effort.
CHRIS ARREOLA VS. ERIC MOLINA
If Texans circled one match on the American Bank Center card, if there was one fight that brought them out Saturday night, it was California heavyweight Chris “The Nightmare” Arreola (34-2, 30 KOs) against Texan Eric Molina (18-2, 14 KOs), and the match was excellent while it lasted. Unfortunately for fans, it lasted only 150 seconds, as Arreola, despite being hurt early, dropped and stopped Molina at 2:30 of round 1.
Arreola, who has lost at least 20 pounds from previous fighting weights, now appears somehow less menacing in his trimmer figure but nevertheless brings a row every time he steps between the ropes. Molina learned this harsh lesson after stunning Arreola 90 seconds into their match.
“I said before the fight that if I had him hurt, I would come in and try to finish, and I did,” Molina said afterwards. “And he caught me.”
Arreola has more class than his detractors are often wont to admit. He looks and talks like a face-first brawler, but this brash exterior belies a stellar amateur pedigree and an impressive ability to land seemingly blind overhand rights on contender-caliber heavyweights. After being backed to the ropes by Molina and forced to clinch, Arreola used a pair of such right hands to get Molina off him.
And then it was a walloping right hand that put Molina’s lights out.
“I did my best,” said Molina.
Arreola did better.
MALIK SCOTT VS. KENDRICK RELEFORD
The evening’s first undercard fight televised by Showtime Extreme, an eight-round scrap between undefeated Philadelphia heavyweight Malik Scott (33-0, 11 KOs) and Texan Kendrick “The Apostle” Releford (22-16-2, 10 KOs), saw a technically superior though light-hitting Scott preserve his ‘0’, decisioning Releford by unanimous scores of 79-73, 80-72 and 80-72.
Throughout the occasionally sober match, Scott tagged Releford with right uppercut-left hook combinations that snapped Releford’s braided hair upwards and leftwards but did not imperil him.
Scott has every punch in the boxing lexicon, and appears to commit to each one, too, but whatever the mysterious force that gives a prizefighter one-punch stopping power, Scott does not possess it.
UNDERCARD
The undercard ended well with a competitive four-rounder between two Texas lightweights. Corpus Christi’s Gregorio Gutierrez (5-1, 2 KOs) prevailed over Brownsville’s Hector Garza (3-5, 2 KOs) by three scores of 39-37.
Saturday’s fifth fight saw the evening’s biggest upset, when unknown New Orleans super middleweight Justin Williams (4-5-1, 2 KOs) decisioned local and well-known contender Alfonso Lopez (22-3, 17 KOs) by unanimous scores of 57-56, 58-55 and 58-55. Williams was faster and better throughout, dropping Lopez once and doing everything necessary to win a fair and well-deserved victory.
Before that, hometown welterweight Julian Barboza (2-0, 2 KOs) made decisive work of San Antonio’s Arturo Lopez (0-1). Lopez, making his professional debut, came out quickly and boxed confidently for the bout’s opening minute, but then Barboza began to take him apart with tight combinations, stopping him at 2:11 of the second round.
Saturday’s first match, a hesitant six-round affair between undefeated Washington D.C. light heavyweight Thomas Williams Jr. (7-0, 4 KOs) and Louisiana’s Kentrell Claiborne (2-5, 1 KO), went to Williams by three unanimous scores of 40-35.
Opening bell rang on a silent American Bank Center Arena at 6:22 PM local time.