"Anytime, anyplace, anybody"

Mark Ortega

You used to hear the phrase “Any time, any place, anybody” a whole lot in boxing. For one reason or another that slogan hasn’t been applicable to the sport in quite awhile, but in newly-crowned WBO Interim Junior Middleweight champion Paul Williams and undefeated American heavyweight sensation Chris Arreola, Goossen-Tutor Promotions has two fighters that this moniker can be applied to.

Between the two of them, they fought eight times in 2008, seven of those bouts being nationally televised. Williams has even fought at three different weight classes this year alone, something that has been sight unseen in decades.

In how it has been so easy to keep these two fighters so active, Goossen-Tutor Promotions head Dan Goossen had this to say: “It takes two to come up with the decisions and that’s the business side of the fighters, meaning manager Al Haymon, the trainer in both Henry Ramirez and George Peterson, and then the fighters and ourselves.”

A case could be made that Arreola should be fighting that many times a year anyways since he has yet to reach the top of the hill, but Williams was in the ring four times this year after picking up a world title in July of last year when he knocked off the heavily avoided Antonio Margarito for his WBO welterweight crown. Williams and his team have to be commended for even fighting Margarito in the first place. As we have seen in the case of Andre Berto, there is a much easier route to a world championship than fighting a man whose last loss against an opponent at 147 pounds came in 1996, when Margarito was barely eighteen years old.

Considering the result of the fight, a unanimous decision victory for Williams, his team knew what they were doing in putting him in the ring with Margarito. The victory instantly catapulted Williams to elite status and put him in talks concerning who the best 147-pounder in the world was. Many thought his team was crazy for throwing Williams into a fight with Margarito.

“There comes a point where you take that next step towards your goal and the time was right to do it at that point,” said Goossen. “Paul proved us right and it’s one of the great things about great fighters is that they make us look like geniuses,” Goossen said.

Following the Margarito win, Williams had a bit of a letdown when he lost a unanimous decision to Carlos Quintana in February of this year. Williams was originally slated to take on Kermit Cintron in an IBF/WBO unification bout, but when Cintron hurt his hand in a November fight with Jesse Feliciano, Quintana became the opponent. Regardless of how the fight came to be, Williams dropped a tough decision, but did not hang his head for long. He was back in the ring again in June, against the only man to hand Williams a professional loss. Williams went right after Quintana and scored a thrilling first round knockout, completely erasing his lone professional defeat.

With everybody at the top either avoiding Williams or fighting each other, Williams took a tune-up fight, but it came with a twist. Williams stepped in the ring again in September, fighting two weight-classes above where he was a world champion. His opponent was a capable one in Andy Kolle, whose only loss came at the hands of another Goossen fighter, 2004 Gold Medalist Andre Ward. Williams blasted Kolle out within a round, leaving fans wondering where he could go next. Not many fighters open a door wide enough for themselves where they can say they can legitimately fight for a world title in three different weight classes, but Williams took advantage of this. In his most recent bout just this past weekend, Williams picked up the WBO Interim 154-pound title against Verno Phillips, and in the process became the first man to stop the rugged Phillips in twenty years.

The most important thing to take away from Williams’ busy schedule is that all four of his bouts this year were nationally televised. He fought on HBO twice, Showtime once, and his tune-up bout with Kolle was televised by Versus. In order for boxing to fully develop “stars”, this is something that needs to be done. Fighting four times a year, on national television, can only do positive things to increase the awareness of a fighter.

Just look at what it has done to the career of Chris Arreola. In 2008, he went from being called a second-tier heavyweight by some to being universally recognized as the United States’ best heavyweight. His two biggest wins, over Chazz Witherspoon (23-0 at the time) and now Travis Walker (28-1-1 at the time) were both on HBO’s Boxing After Dark. His fight against Israel Garcia (19-1) was on Versus. Arreola’s weight problems have been well documented in the past. In his own words, Arreola says he needs to fight four or five times a year, otherwise he gets lazy. In his fight against Garcia, he was heavily chastised by the press for coming in 258 pounds, a career high. The criticism only forced Arreola to drop down to 254 for his win over Walker this past weekend. Arreola has stated in the past that for a fight with the Klitschkos he knows he would need to come to fight in much better shape. His fight with Witherspoon has shown that he is capable of working hard for a big enough fight, as he came into that contest (which was almost a pick’em fight) weighing 239 pounds.

Arreola coming in heavy for the Walker fight did have people wondering, especially after the beating he took through one and a half rounds at the hands of the 12-to-1 underdog Walker, if it was a huge issue. Arreola seemingly enjoyed taking some brutal punishment, and in his words this was his way of studying his opponent. “I wanted to see what kinds of punches he threw, whether they were looping punches or good straight punches,” said Arreola in response to why his defense was so poor early in the fight. It seems to be a much tougher way to learn how your opponent fights; most fighters seem to study their opponent on film rather than waiting to see what they offer them in the ring. That Arreola dealt with adversity in being knocked down by Walker in the second, only to come back and floor him twice in the same round, drew a positive reaction to the crowd. Arreola’s camp is happy that the adversity came in a fight like this rather than in a big fight that could happen down the road.

“That’s what a fighter or any athlete needs. You got to know how to come back from being 15 points down in the fourth quarter, or 5 points down at the end of a basketball game or a few runs down in the 9th and the only way to do that is to overcome it,” says Goossen. He continued, “And the best place to overcome that is on the way there and not when you get there.”

Another reason why this fighter has become so popular is the excitement he brings with him into the ring. In 26 fights, the distance has only been seen once, and that was in a six-round fight coming off a layoff, where he “surprisingly” weighed 256 pounds. His win over Witherspoon was all but officially a knockout, as Witherspoon was in shape to continue but was ruled disqualified when someone from his corner entered the ring. Another win of Arreola’s came when his opponent was so afraid of him in the ring he was disqualified for holding excessively and hitting on the break. Other than that, Arreola opponents have come into the ring only to crushingly get knocked out.

Arreola is not quite yet for a fight against either Klitschko, but what is great about the guy is that there are so many fights out there for him that the fans would love to see. Fights against guys like Eddie Chambers [32-1, 18 KOs] and Malik Scott [31-0, 11 KOs] would help make Arreola’s case as the best heavyweight in the States. Fights against Lamon Brewster [34-4, 30 KOs] and Oleg Maskaev [35-6, 26 KOs] would provide fireworks regardless of who wins. James Toney [70-6-3, 43 KOs] and Hasim Rahman [45-6-2, 36 KOs] would be tough tests for Arreola as experienced heavyweights. Of course the fight that everyone would love to see is Arreola taking on the United Kingdom’s David Haye [22-1, 21 KOs], who just had his first true test at heavyweight after completely cleaning out the cruiserweight division. The important thing is, there are very few places that Goossen-Tutor could go with Arreola that would leave me disappointed.

They have the same “problem” with Williams. Now that he is an active fighter in three different weight classes (147, 160, and now 154), there are lots of options for him out there. Two of them have all but been officially nixed as bouts with Antonio Margarito [37-5, 27 KOs], the WBA welterweight champion, and Vernon Forrest [41-3, 29 KOs], the once-again WBC junior middleweight champion, have roadblocks that prevent them from happening. With Margarito, it has been made public that Bob Arum, head of Top Rank and Margarito’s promoter, does not want to have anything to do with Williams’ camp again after negotiations broke down between the two sides on a proposed fight between Williams and middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik.. A fight with Forrest does not look likely because both he and Williams are managed by Al Haymon.

Both fights could be big if they were somehow to be made. A rematch with Margarito would without a doubt determine the best 147-pounder in the world. A unification fight with Forrest could be big if held in Georgia, the home state for both fighters. Even with those two fights having a limited chance of being made, there are still other places Paul Williams could go that would satisfy the fans.

By becoming the interim WBO 154-pound champion, Williams becomes the mandatory to the undefeated WBO champion from Germany, Sergei Dzinziruk [36-0, 22 KOs]. Dzinziruk stated that he would like to fight Williams, but after he gets a unification bout with the WBA champion Daniel Santos [32-3-1, 23 KOs], a rematch from 2005 that saw Santos lose a close decision in Germany. Dzinziruk even said he would come to America for a Williams fight. At welterweight, there are matchups with IBF champion Joshua Clottey [35-2, 20 KOs] and WBC champion Andre Berto [23-0, 19 KOs] that could help clear up the picture at 147-pounds while a Margarito rematch lingers. There are also guys in the top ten or fifteen that would give Williams a test (much like Verno Phillips did) that include former-titlists Zab Judah [37-6, 25 KOs], Kermit Cintron [30-2, 27 KOs], and Shane Mosley [45-5, 38 KOs].

“All of those fights are on the table with us and what we’ll do is take the biggest one. That is what we are doing is looking for the biggest fights,” said Goossen.

It will be interesting to see where these two fighters go from here, because there are so many paths they can take. What you have are two fighters that stay active, take on all comers, and that also have great personalities. Arreola is a writer’s dream and as quotable of a fighter as there has been in recent times. Williams is a very humble person with a quiet confidence of himself wherever he is. It has been awhile since there have been two fighters in a situation like this. Hopefully this time the opportunity does not get squandered, like it has many times in the past. But if 2008 was any indication of what is still to come, then boxing fans are in for a treat. Read more!

Williams, Arreola "heavy" favorites

Mark Ortega

Tonight’s HBO Boxing After Dark card features two intriguing matchups in the inaugural boxing show at Ontario , California ’s new Citizens Bank Arena. In tonight’s main event, Paul Williams [35-1, 26 KOs ] seeks his second world title when he takes on Verno Phillips [42-10-1, 21 KOs ] for the interim WBO Junior Middleweight championship. The co-featured bout is an IBF eliminator between undefeated Mexican-American heavyweight Chris Arreola [25-0, 22 KOs ] and Travis Walker [ 28-1-1 , 22 KOs ].

Williams and Arreola were both featured on the same Versus card at the end of September and both fighters scored exciting knockouts. Williams made his middleweight debut in a first round knockout of the game Andy Kolle while Arreola scored a third round stoppage of Israel Garcia. Williams is facing a much stiffer test tonight in the tough Verno Phillips, who made his professional debut back in 1988, when Williams was seven years old. Williams is also looking for his second world title in his second different weight class, as he is still currently the WBO Welterweight champion. Phillips picked up his second world title when he upset Cory Spinks for the IBF Junior Middleweight title in March of this year. Phillips has dropped that belt to pursue this fight for the WBO interim title and a fight on HBO. Phillips has rejuvenated his career with four straight victories including the upset over Spinks. Although Phillips has ten losses on his ledger, he was only stopped one time and that was in his fifth professional bout. Williams weighed in at 153.5 while Phillips came in at the junior middleweight limit of 154. Williams is a 9-1 favorite heading into the fight.

The opening bout of the televised portion of the card is the twelve round heavyweight attraction between Arreola and Walker. Arreola, the heavy favorite at 12-1, has come in heavy for the second straight fight weighing in at 254 while Walker has come in at a fit 231, the lightest he has ever been. Arreola is from nearby Riverside , California and will have the hometown crowd in his favor for tonight’s bout. The winner of this bout will become Wladimir Klitschko’s new IBF mandatory.

Also on the card tonight is a 2008 United States Olympian in East Los Angeles’ Shawn Estrada who is making his professional debut at junior middleweight against Lawrence Jones [2-1-1, KO] of Washington, D.C. Estrada weighed in at 163.5, while Jones came in at 159 for this scheduled four-round bout.

Also being featured tonight is Bakersfield , California ’s undefeated junior welterweight prospect Mike Dallas, Jr. [5-0, KO] in his first six rounder against Jose Alfredo Lugo [10-5, 5 KOs] of Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico. Dallas was scheduled to take on Lugo twice before, with the most recent postponement being due to Dallas having surgery on his nose. Dallas weighed in at the 140 pound limit while Lugo came in light at 138.5.

Heavyweights Manuel Quezada [24-4, 15 KOs ] and Teke Oruh [ 14-1-1 , 6 KOs ] will do battle in the second fight of the night for Quezada’s WBC CABOFE heavyweight title. This is an interesting fight for many reasons, with one of them being that these two have been scheduled to fight each other on a number of occasions, but for one reason or another the fight never went off. Their bout was at one point going to be a headlining bout in San Jose , California until Oruh suffered an injury. This fight lives up to the slogan for tonight’s card of “At Last”, as we finally will get to see who the better heavyweight is. Quezada, who is out of Wasco , California weighed in 230 while Las Vegas , Nevada ’s Oruh weighed in at 249 for this scheduled ten round bout.

The opening bout of tonight’s show is a junior welterweight bout between Riverside , California ’s Josesito Lopez [22-3, 13 KOs ] and late substitution Alex Perez [23-31-4, 18 KOs ]. The scheduled eight-round attraction is Lopez’ first fight since his controversial majority decision loss to Edgar Santana on Showtime back in April, and is expected to be a bounce back fight for him. That was a bout in which Lopez dropped his opponent twice and still was given a raw deal on the scorecards. Lopez weighed in at 141.5 while Perez came in a half pound heavier at 142.

Tonight’s card is promoted by Goossen-Tutor Promotions and the televised portion of the card will begin at 7 PM Pacific time. The main event is scheduled to start around 8 PM .
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Frankel decisions older Pacquiao!

Mark Ortega

Thursday night saw Robert Frankel [26-9-2, 4 KOs] of Denver, Colorado deliver a tremendous effort en route to a unanimous decision victory over Bobby Pacquiao [29-15-3, 14 KOs] of the Philippines at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California. The fight turned out to be a worthy, although one-sided main event, with lots of back and forth action throughout. The final scores read 98-91 unanimously in favor of Frankel, who has now won his fifth straight fight in a row after dropping his first two of 2008.Yes, this was Frankel’s seventh fight of 2008, and it may have been the best year of his career.

Although Frankel entered this fight with only four knockouts in thirty-five professional bouts, it was apparent very early on that he was the stronger fighter. Frankel was able to snap Pacquiao’s head back on plenty of occasions, and he seemed to do more damage. Pacquiao had moments where he landed well behind the jab, but he left himself too open to straight right hands from Frankel to warrant being awarded very many rounds. Pacquiao has now lost three straight but looked better in this fight than in his last two defeats and can still deliver a watchable fight.

Following the bout, Frankel had this to say when asked what it as like to add a big name like Pacquiao to his ledger. “I take every fight like it is a big fight, no matter who it is,” explains Frankel. “That is Pacquiao’s brother, it is a good name to have [on my record,] but it is not Pacquiao. Not the big man. But I am ready for him.”

In the co-featured bout, Chika Nakamura [8-0, 3 KOs] of New York, New York scored a controversial unanimous decision over Tiffany Junot [4-2, 3 KOs] of New Orleans, Louisiana in an exciting six round female lightweight bout. Although Nakamura was coming forward, many felt that Junot was landing the more effective blows. Junot seemed to be throwing more in combinations and got stronger as the bout progressed, while Nakamura was throwing one to two punches at a time.

The difference may have been Nakamura started and ended strongly. The first and last rounds were here best, while Junot did better in the middle part of the fight. Although the scorecards of 58-56 across the board drew the jeers of the crowd, it would be incorrect to classify this as a robbery as each round was razor-thin close. UBR scored the bout 58-56 in favor of Junot.

The only complaint could be that nobody officially scoring the bout was able to find the fight either a draw or for Junot. This was a fight that drew lots of attention from the crowd and may have been the best fight of the night, and could possibly lead to a rematch. Following the fight, Junot mentioned that she wished that it was an eight round fight because she was ready to keep going, so potentially they could fight down the line.

Also featured on the card was a thrilling four-round super middleweight contest that saw Roberto Florentino [3-3, 3 KOs] of Indianapolis, Indiana knock out Jason “J.P.” Peterson [2-2, KO] of San Francisco, California in the third round. Both fighters came out quickly with Florentino setting the pace for this fight by throwing lots of punches, all with bad intentions on them. Peterson was happy to oblige Florentino and willingly entered into a slugfest. Florentino was the quicker fighter and landed at will for the most part. Florentino also did not fail to offer openings to Peterson who dropped some good right hands on the southpaw that Florentino took very well. Peterson did not take the punches quite as well and got hit by a huge shot that staggered him against the ropes and prompted the referee to issue a count. Peterson boldly rose to his feet but when he arose the referee asked him vital questions that Peterson did not respond to. The time of the stoppage was 1:48 in the third round. This will be Peterson’s last fight before he goes to prison for five years stemming from a drug charge from years ago.

In a circus-like attraction, five-foot-six Karim Mayfield [7-0-1, 5 KOs] of Daly City, California shut out the six-foot-fight Trenton Titsworth [2-6-1, 2 KOs] of Omaha, Nebraska in a four round welterweight bout. Although the fight was not very pleasing to watch, much of it can be hung on the huge size disparage between the two fighters and the fact that one fighter did not come to fight. Titsworth held for much of the fight, and at one point failed to launch a punch for over three and a half minutes. Mayfield had to try and land punches and his nearly foot taller opponent, which would give anyone some trouble. When Mayfield was able to land, he was effective and had Titsworth in trouble multiple times. Mayfield was originally slated to take on Abel Perry [9-2] in a six rounder, but an injury forced a new opponent and for the fight to only be a four rounder. This was Mayfield’s first bout back since his exciting March victory over Francisco Santana at a Fight Night at the Tank. The official scores of the bout were 40-36 across the board. UBR also scored the bout 40-36 in favor of Mayfield.

Welterweight Eric Garcia [3-0-1, KO] of Salinas, California scored a four round unanimous decision over Pueblo, Colorado’s Geoffrey Spruiell [7-7, 2 KOs]. The first round was fought pretty evenly with Garcia pressing the action. In the second, Garcia threw an accurate right hand that dropped Spruiell brutally. Spruiell somehow recovered from the shot and made it out of the round despite his opponent going for the kill. Garcia was not able to finish his opponent and had to settle for a unanimous decision victory in which all the judges scored the bout 39-36. UBR scored it a shutout, 40-35, for Garcia.

In a heavyweight four rounder, Yohan Banks [2-1-1, KO] of San Jose, California scored a brutal knockout over San Francisco, California’s Bernard Gray [2-3] in the second round. A pretty uneventful fight took a sharp turn when Banks threw a wild right hand uppercut that dropped Gray and prompted the referee to not even issue a count.

In the card’s opening bout, hometown girl Melissa McCorrow scored a four round unanimous decision over Gloria Salas of Cathedral City, California. McCorrow was very well received and had her own cheering section, but the rest of the crowd joined in when they saw what was happening in the ring. There was a lot of back and forth action over the course of all four rounds, with McCorrow throwing a great jab and landing good shots to the body that slowed her opponent down. Salas had her moments, backing McCorrow up a few times, but she was not the busier fighter. The official scoring of the bout was 40-36, 40-36, and 39-37.

This was the first Fight Night at the Tank promoted by Sycuan Ringside Promotions and 3,453 people attended the show. The Fight Night at the Tank will return to San Jose in 2009.

All photos taken by Rocky Widner.
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