Boxing

 

I Lost...Now What

By Don Deane

17.02 - The first round of the Mexico-Cincinnati dual meet is over with Mexico coming away with a clean two to nothing sweep. Late and tough sub Juan Valenzuela stepped in for Panchito Bojado conqueror Juan Carlos Rubio to face American amateur standout Ricardo Williams JR. Valenzuela did exactly what he needed to do to impose his great will and lacking skill on the polished Williams. Valenzuela conquered the hype that seems to be Ricardo Williams and pounded him for the last half of the fight to grind out a decision win. In the main event, Tim Austin lost his IBF 118lb belt to Rafael Marquez by TKO. Marquez was able to solve the tricky Austin and land enough powerful blows to end things before the scheduled time. The two American fighters both lost, but they did so for different reasons. The reasons display a fighter still on the rise, and one whose star may have fallen before it fully brightened.

First up we have former champion Tim Austin. He lost his first fight. So what. He is going to take a lay off spend time with his family. Good for him. No offense to Marquez, who is a great fighter and wonderful champion, but Austin has bigger things waiting for him. His biggest gain is being able to make an uninhibited jump to 122lbs. He will be able to fight whoever he wants without dealing with the IBF's bull crap mandatory fights and the inevitable threat of being stripped if he fights someone besides who they deem worthy. Another thing for Austin is he will be able to do something at a bigger weight that he can't do at bantamweight. He will be able to get rich. A good future fight to aim for would be Paulie Ayala or Oscar Larios. Both are tough, in your face fighters and Tim Austin would have to be less tense than he was against Marquez to stand a chance. Austin may have a tough time if he chooses to jump to featherweight because of his height. If he stepped in with Barrera or Morales he would deal with a distinct height disadvantage just like Ayala did. In the meantime I would like to see Austin mark time at his new weight with a fight against a mid-level contender like Yorber Ortega or Willie Jorrin. After that he can probably target a belt or go for one of the super fights. Either way, Austin has a bright future and one loss won't change that.

The other side of the coin is Ricardo Williams. He looked absolutely exhausted after four rounds of the fight. He really needed a strong showing after his plodding victory over Terron Millett. Valenzuela brought the fight to Williams and made Williams work. To Williams' credit, he fought a very rough fight and showed a lot of guts. Many questions have been answered as to how tough Williams is, but this is a poor way to answer those questions. Williams has a lacking physique and still throws amateur punches. He does not posses a strong enough punch to force his kind of fight. Williams likes to counter from the outside, but he needs to have sharper punches to keep guys off him. He simply is not strong enough to gain respect as Valenzuela showed. Valenzuela drew the blue print on how to beat Ricardo Williams, and unfortunately for Williams, there are a lot of guys in the welterweight divisions that will employ that style and they are all better than Valenzuela. Ricardo needs to take training more seriously and he has to work on strength training so he can fend off his man and also fight inside when the time comes. His conditioning needs to be better because he will not get far in his career if he can only show up for 4 rounds of a fight.

Both of these fighters are tremendous talents and will bounce back. The question that needs to be answered is how far up they will bounce. Austin will start his progression up in weight a little earlier than expected, but that is no big deal. As long as he knows that bigger fights are out there and that he can win them he should be a force and possibly a champion again. For Williams, he is still early in his career and he has to decide what he wants to do. He needs to determine if his heart and mind are really in pro boxing and then take appropriate actions. Williams is polished with a good amateur background and will be a top contender if he gets himself in shape and works on his power.

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