The HBO After Dark fight card promoted by Goossen Tutor Promotions was well received on Sat., Feb. 8, at the Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, Calif. It certainly turned into a surprising evening of boxing after then-WBO Welterweight Champion Paul “The Punisher” Williams entered the ring all smiles ready to fight Carlos “El Indio” Quintana.
Williams (34-1-24 KOs) of Augusta, Ga., started out slow and appeared not to be in full rhythm, as Quintana (25-1-19 KOs) of Puerto Rico was slipping in overhand lefts and rights while fighting inside Williams.
It was a battle of two southpaws; kind of like watching mirror reflections as they swung at each other. However, there was no question on the judges’ scorecards that Quintana had effectively scored throughout the earlier and later rounds.
According to CompuBox punch stats—Williams had thrown 799 punches to Quintana’s 596, landing 157 to Quintana’s 203. Williams’ jabs weren’t too effective against Quintana; they were 323 to 227 for Quintana, connecting only 53 to Quintana’s 60.
In the power punch category Williams threw 476 to Quintana’s 369, connecting 104 to Quintana’s 143.
During the press conference, Williams gave all the credit to Quintana for wining the fight fair and square.
“I couldn’t get into the rhythm,” stated Williams. When asked it he overlooked Quintana, he concluded, “I never overlooked Quintana. I just couldn’t get into my rhythm, and he got the shots off first. He was a better man than [me] tonight.”
Lou DiBella, manager for Quintana, thought that Williams was a great fighter, but he would be better fighting as a middleweight. Although Williams said he had no problem making weight at 147, the 6-foot fighter, too many boxing fans, would rather see him fight middleweight.
Now that Quintana has a WBO welterweight title, there is a question as to how long a layoff he will take, and if the possibility of fighting a De la Hoya or a Mayweather will be in the cards.
As for Williams, he’s going to “take a long vacation” and decide whether to stay in his current weight class or move up. After all, this is Williams’ first loss.
The semi-main event on the Williams-Quintana card had a very powerful Andre Berto (21-0-18 KOs) or Winterhaven, Fla., punished Michael Trabant (44-3-1- 19 KOs) of Berlin, Germany, in a 10-round welterweight bout. Berto delivered consistent power punches, along with some powerful uppercuts, to the point that the referee stopped the fight in the sixth round.
In the heavyweight division, there was a special 10-round attraction featuring Cristoval “The Nightmare” Arreola (23-0-21 KOs) of Riverside, Calif., overtaking Cliff Couser (27-15-2-14 KOs) of Las Vegas, Nev. Arreola overpowered Couser, knocking him out in round one.
Arreola, who is managed by Al Hamin and Lou DiBella, says he looks forward to fighting David Tua and other well-known heavyweights.
When Arreola was asked if thinks he’s a true heavyweight, he commented, “I never thought about my weight, I just fight like I was a middleweight, when I was younger. I’ve been fighting since I was eight years old. So, I just consider myself a fast fighter.”
Other undercards included Omri Lowther (10-1, 8 KOs) of Atlanta, Ga., fighting a six-round welterweight fight, beating out Braulio Lopez (7-7, 12 KOs) of Tualitin, Mexico. Lopez, incidentally, showed a lot a heart even though he threw a lot of wild punches.
A four-round junior middleweight bout had Raymond Biggs Jr. (7-0, 6 KOs) of Jersey City, N.J., knockout Bryan Mullis (5-3-1, 2 KOs) of Charlotte, N.C.
