By Ted Sares:
I don’t know anything about him. My trainer, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, has seen tapes of him. I let Eddie analyze the tapes and he tells me what to work on in the gym.
—Aaron “Awesome” Williams
I’m The Next Big Thing!
— Williams
I would be shocked if this was a competitive fight
— Teddy Atlas
This one between cruiserweights Aaron “Awesome” Williams (then 17-0-1) and Colombian Jose Luis “La Pantera Herrera”(15-4 coming in) was fought on May 23, 2008 at the Twin River Event Center in Lincoln, Rhode Island and I was there. My good friend Irish Charley Dwyer was the third man in the ring. The bout was to showcase the talent of “Awesome” who was coming off a sensational two round stoppage of veteran Andre Purlette (40-2 coming in). That one, also held at the Twin River Event Center, was fought just month prior and refereed by Dick Flaherty. Many have called Williams the top prospect in boxing, though the quality of his opposition was not particularly awesome.
According to those who had watched the fight on television, Teddy Atlas had commented on the distinct possibility of Williams ending matters early and the fact this bout might be a mismatch based on “La Pantera” having lost 3 of his last 4 by TKO. However, these losses had come against undefeated Tavoris Cloud (15-0), the capable Lafarrell Bunting (15-1-1), and legendary Jorge Fernando Castro (129-11-3). Teddy expressed moderate surprise that the R.I. Commission had allowed it to take place, also commenting that Jose Luis had gained considerable weight for this fight thus making Williams the much bigger man in natural weight. The Columbian also had taken the fight on short notice. In short, all the cards seemed heavily stacked against him, including Teddy’s prognosis.
What Atlas forgot to add (or maybe didn’t know) was that Jose Luis Herrera had stopped the great Castro back in 2006. He had also iced the somewhat limited George Blades (21-3) in his last duke. “Pantera” is a chill-or-be-chilled type with one-punch knockout power whose record was 15 (KO 15)-4 (KO 4) coming in. “Awesome” Aaron was 17-0-1. Between them, they participated in 17 first round blow outs.
The Fight
After a fast start in round one, it looked as if Atlas would be spot on as Williams assaulted Herrera with a barrage of heavy shots that backed him into a corner and dropped him like he had been sapped. Inexplicitly, however, the overly officious doctor at ringside then took what seemed like an inordinate amount of time to examine the Columbian giving him 12-15 seconds or enough time to recover.
Going into the fifth, Williams fought with explosive and impressive spurts and completely controlled the action, but Herrera kept throwing rights hoping that Williams would get caught by one of his wild shots. All of a sudden, as Aaron made one of his patented defensive moves to his right, he was indeed caught with a smashing right and then another that wobbled him and slammed him into the ropes. Earlier, Atlas had warned about the possibility of this happening. Williams was given an 8 count. He was badly hurt and mugged to a corner where he went to the canvas without being punched seemingly to get himself together. When he got up, however, he was ready to do the “Zab Chicken Dance.” At this point, Referee Dwyer directed him to the doctor who examined him very carefully. When “Awesome” called the doctor “Ref,” the fight was halted, and rightly so since La Pantera was poised to do significant damage to the now defenseless and no longer awesome prospect.
Since the “mismatch,” Aaron has gone 4-2 against just fair opposition, while Herrera has lost seven in a row against opposition with an impressive combined won-lost mark of 102-3-1.
To his credit, Teddy Atlas owned up and said afterwards that “apparently the Rhode Island Commission knew what it was doing when it matched these two boxers.”
Take an interesting boxing your on the author’s updated and unique site at www.tedsares.com