The trainer of Julian Williams wants his charge to avenge his stunning upset loss to Jeison Rosario on Jan. 18. And he wants him to do so by knockout.
Stephen Edwards, Williams’ longtime trainer, set the bar high for Williams during an appearance on the Everlast TalkBox Podcast.
“I may get overruled on this, I don’t know,” Edwards said, “but for me being able to go to sleep at night and what I believe Julian is at, he gotta get that loss the f— back.
“I don’t care who don’t like this. He gotta fight that kid again and he gotta knock that kid out.”
Talk about pressure.
Williams made strong statement last May when he upset Jarrett Hurd to win two junior middleweight titles. It was a remarkable comeback for a fighter who had been written off by some after suffering a knockout loss at the hands of Jermall Charlo in 2016.
A rematch with Hurd was expected to take place in December but Hurd, for whatever reason, declined. In stepped Rosario, a hard-hitting, but relatively unknown Dominican who was expected to be something of a tune-up for Williams. There were even tentative plans to have Williams face a fellow titleholder in a unification bout this summer.
The 24-year-old Rosario had other plans. Rosario busted up Williams’ eye early in the fight and then stopped the Philadelphian in the fifth-round in front of his hometown crowd.
Edwards, still smarting from the loss, believes a knockout in the rematch will be the only way to conclusively put this episode behind them.
“If [Williams] don’t [knock out Rosario] I’m gonna be disappointed in him,” Edwards said. “I made it as clear as I can. I don’t know if [the rematch is] going to be next or whatever, but he gotta get that kid back.”
Edwards upped the ante.
“[Williams] cannot go out on his career losing to that kid, I’m sorry,” he said. “[The loss to] Jermall Charlo, I can accept that a little bit. You know, that guy may go to the Hall of Fame, and we can say we fought him when Julian was a little young at the time and that he caught Julian with a great shot.
“This fight (against Rosario), I can’t stomach that. I’m serious. I just can’t.”
Jeison Rosario scores stunning 5th-round KO of Julian Williams