By Jim De Pierro

Terron Millett 27-3-1 (19 KOs) vs. Ricardo Williams 7-0-0-1 NC (5 KOs)

(HBO under card)

I really don’t see any way Terron Millett wins this fight. The experience edge is certainly in Millett’s favor but I don’t even think Millett will be able to even outsmart Ricardo Williams who is one of the slickest prospects to come out of the 2000 Olympic class. Whenever a prospect with so few fights in the professional ranks takes on his first bona fide contender and former champion there is always the chance that he will be exposed. I don’t see that happening with Williams whose level of opposition for someone with 8 fights has been absolutely phenomenal. Williams has never faced a fighter with a losing record and of those eight men only two of them came into their fight with Williams coming off losses. The combined record of Ricardo Williams opponents at the time they fought him is 73-15-2 (44 KOs). Clearly Williams’s people believe that their kid has got the goods and is going to beat Millett on HBO.

Millett himself may think that he can and will win this fight but I see this match up as one of desperation on the part of Millet’s team in the hope that they can somehow get lucky and walk away with a win on HBO and possibly milk his name for another high profile fight. If Millett wasn’t shot as a fighter going into his last high profile fight with Arturo Gatti earlier this year he certainly is now. I think Gatti absolutely destroyed Millett. Millett will ever be the same fighter as result of the Gatti fight, which at the very least should be a candidate for KO of the year. Millett, in the one fight he has had since the Gatti fight struggled to a split decision win over unheralded 15-17-1 Damone Wright. This Wright fighter was 35 years old and had lost 17 times which means he is probably almost as shot as Millett even though Wright was never much to begin with. If Millett has to struggle to beat a 35-year-old .500 fighter clearly he is not the same fighter who won the IBF jr. welterweight belt in 1999 against Vince Phillips.

Ricardo Williams, although a slick and talented boxer, is not much of a puncher IMO. I won’t be surprised if Williams puts Millet on the canvas on his way to winning a decision. My prediction is that Williams will be two steps ahead of Millett at every point in the fight. Although every loss Millet has ever suffered has been by KO inside four rounds I think Millett will clearly be in survival mode at the end of the fight or vainly chasing Williams to no avail, as he will be hopelessly behind. Millett’s only chance as I see it is to hope for the lucky punch and Williams has a chin made of china. Even if Williams has a china chin I doubt Millett will be able to land anything significant to crack it. Williams will win an easy clear cut unanimous decision by at least six points on all three judges scorecards in a very one sided fight that will effectively be the death knell of Terron Millett’s career.

Ricardo Williams UD over Terron Millett

(HBO Main Event)

On paper this has the makings of a very intriguing match up but in reality I think this fight is going to be a bust. I will watch this fight of course and it may even turn out to be very action packed at times but when I think of what is likely to happen in a fight between Barrera and Tapia I can’t help but think that Tapia is going to be an old man and look it by the end of the night. I am not convinced that Tapia is a legitimate featherweight. I think he has been matched with other featherweights who are either over the hill or were never very good to begin with since he started campaigning as a featherweight. For what its worth I will be pulling for Tapia. For those of you who are not very familiar with Johnny Tapia and his life I strongly recommend going to http://www.johnnytapia.com and reading the biography section. It is one of the most tragic yet inspiring real life stories you will ever read. If you are not a fan of Johnny Tapia after reading this you never will be. I have never particularly cared for Barrera. I guess its because I’m a disgruntled Prince fan and still haven’t gotten over how Barrera dethroned Naseem Hamed.

Both fighters are IMO are coming off fights where if I had been a judge I would be writing a column on my predictions for the winner of Erik Morales vs. Manuel Medina right now. Tapia landed the better punches against Medina but Medina more than made up for it in quantity with over 1400 punches thrown by Manuel Medina who I think was clearly victimized by boxing politics and the power of the Tapia name.

As for Barrera he certainly beat Morales in the first fight and should have won. The second fight I felt Morales won by about three points but the fight was awarded to Barrera. Only in boxing do two wrongs make a right. I still feel Barrera is the better fighter of the two but he relied too much on counterpunching and waiting for Morales to make the wrong move in the earlier part of the fight. Fortunately for Barrera the judges didn’t see the fight the way I saw it and he got away with his mistake.

Tapia will be game throughout the whole fight but I think he will end up losing the majority of rounds while being competitive in every round. Tapia’s hear will keep him in the fight allowing him to go the distance. My guess is Barrera will pitch a near shut out in a fight that will be lopsided on the scorecards but will have been very hard fought by both combatants.

Marco Antonio Barrera UD over Johnny Tapia

George Khalid Jones 18-1 (13 KOs) vs. Montel Griffin 43-3 (28 KOs)

(Fox Sports SNF Main Event)

Many of you reading this column may recall George Jones as being the other fighter in the tragic death of Beethaeven Scottland who died six days later of injuries he sustained in a boxing match against Jones. For many fighters the death of an opponent can have long lasting psychological effects. Whether that is the case with George Jones I don’t know but in Jones following fight with Eric Harding he suffered his first defeat. Scottland was probably largely irrelevant to George Jones performance. I don’t think George Jones is even in the same league as Eric Harding as a fighter. George Jones is about a C or C+ level fighter in my estimation of him.

Montel Griffin, in his last fight against Derrick Harmon, looked better than I have seen him in years. Harmon’s weakness as a fighter as I see it is that he is to willing to let his opponent dictate the pace of the fight. Griffin picked up on this and brought the fight to Harmon winning an easy decision. George Jones in my estimation of him is probably less of a fighter than Harmon but Jones should make for a little competitive fight than Harmon did simply because I don’t think Jones is going to be the type to go into survivor mode as soon as he is hurt. George Jones has a decent punch but I don’t think he has anything Montel Griffin hasn’t seen before. Interestingly enough Montel Griffin has never gotten a 7th round knockout in 46 fights. I think he is due for one.

Montel Griffin KO 7 over George Khalid Jones

Agree? Disagree? Think I’m full of it? E-mail me at jdepierro@adelphia.net or post a comment and tell me what you think.