Thomas Williams Jr. Tops Cornelius White In One Crazy Round
by Gautham Nagesh
D.C. light heavyweight Thomas “Top Dog” Williams Jr. (above) had two goals for his first time headlining ESPN’s Friday Night Fights from Shelton, Wash.: win, and look good while doing so.
Williams stopped Cornelius White of Houston in a wild fight that lasted less than one round. Despite the abbreviated nature of the contest, there was time for both men to taste the canvas, and for Williams to prove beyond doubt that both his punching power and his chin are for real. The fight was so short ESPN was able to show it twice.[[MORE]]
The replay and Williams’ powerful left hand helped him land on Sportscenter’s Top 10, which should only enhance Top Dog’s reputation. It’s hard to believe that anyone who caught this fight wouldn’t be interested in seeing Williams fight again. The win should also establish Top Dog as a real contender, and help him secure a fight with one of the more established names in one of boxing’s deepest divisions.
The southpaw Williams dashed out of the gate, dropping the orthodox White immediately with a roundhouse left. White’s chin has betrayed him twice before, but he lasted almost three rounds against Russian assassin Sergey Kovalev. Williams had no intention of letting the fight last that long after hurting his opponent right away.
White rose and went back to jabbing on the outside, but Williams kept looking to mix it up. With a minute left in the round, Williams backed White up again with a right hook-left hand combination. As White retreated, Williams grew overeager and chased him into the corner. Williams charged in recklessly, and White made him pay, catching Top Dog cleanly with his long, lanky left hook.
Williams dropped hard and White raised his hands in premature victory. Williams looked astonished at being knocked down for the first time in his career, but he somehow collected his wits and beat the count with time to spare. White tried to press his advantage, but Williams hurt him back with a left hand to the face. A sweeping right hook to the top of the head sent White back down for the second time, and he was barely able to stand by the the 8-count.
Williams swarmed White and pelted him with shots on the ropes. The referee hesitated briefly, hoping White would last until the bell, but the Texan was defenseless and getting hit. The referee correctly stepped in to stop the fight, as Williams mounted the ropes in the ecstasy of victory.
“I worked for this man,” shouted a charged Top Dog after the fight.
“He caught me with a punch, you know, it happens in boxing, it’s my first time being on the canvas,” a calmer Williams told ESPN’s Bernardo Osuna later.
“But it’s what happens after that, when you face adversity. He put me on the canvas, and I said ‘you know what, it’s time to go to work.’”
He certainly did. I’ve seen Williams in the gym, and know he was practically raised there by his father, a former heavyweight of the same name. Perhaps we’ve been guilty of overlooking Top Dog until now, but we were mostly waiting for him to announce himself with a performance like this. A step up to the likes of Tavoris Cloud or Isaac Chilemba would be a natural progression for Williams.
Featherweight Rico Ramos won an easy decision from Jonathan Arrellano in the co-feature, dropping Arrellano three times with left hooks in the middle rounds. A former super-bantamweight titlist, Ramos possesses dynamic punching power, especially in his left. What he lacks is the killer instinct to finish an opponent once he’s hurt.
Ramos was already winning when he beat Arrellano to the punch on an exchange of left hooks. As the saying goes, never hook with a hooker, and this time it was Arrellano getting in over his head. The punch landed cleanly on Arrellano’s chin and sat him down hard, though he rose to beat the count. Ramos struck again before the end of the round, this time jumping in and landing a similar left hook on his opponent’s unguarded chin.
Arrellano recovered well and appeared to have stabilized things in the 5th round, but Ramos found him against with a third left hook for the knockdown with seconds left. To his credit Arrellano got off the mat and had Ramos in trouble in next two rounds. Arrellano’s rally continued into the final round, and he pushed Ramos right up to the bell. Still, it wasn’t enough to overcome Ramos’ sizable advantage on the scorecards.
Arrellano is a tough customer but has probably reached his ceiling in the sport. He gets hit too easily with the left hook to fight at this level. Ramos has all the gifts in the world, but he doesn’t appear to have a fighter’s temperament. By his own admission, Ramos is not fond of getting hit, and he is too hesitant to turn up the pressure when his opponent is hurt. He will likely fall short when confronted with real adversity again.
Juan Funez won a controversial decision over Marcelo Gallardo in the walk-out bout, a matchup of 3-0 featherweights. Taller and younger, the Southern California native Funez was the house fighter in this bout, while all Gallardo’s fights have been in his home state of Washington.
Being closer to home should have earned Gallardo some sympathy from the judges. Instead they gave Funez the unanimous decision, despite Gallardo scoring a knockdown in the first round of a scheduled four on an exchange of left hooks. The crowd voiced their displeasure afterward, while a battered Funez forced a smile after escaping with his unbeaten record intact.