Don’t hold your breathe for seeing a Caleb Plant vs. David Benavidez super middleweight unification in 2020.
Titleholders David Benavidez and Caleb Plant may be the best American super middleweights today, but don’t expect them to face each other anytime soon. As in, not in 2020.
Benavidez handler Sampson Lewkowicz shut down that possibility in a recent interview.
“A 2020 unification? I don’t believe so,” Lewkowicz told Boxing Junkie. “I believe we need more time”
In other words, the fight needs to marinate, stew, percolate – you get the point – until it reaches a point in which demand exceeds supply. Maximizing the money that the fight could produce for the fighters is Lewkowicz’s priority.
“I believe two of the best American super middleweights are supposed to be on pay-per-view and either one is not ready for that right now,” he said.
Benavidez’s next fight has not been set, although Lewkowicz noted that he is trying to negotiate something for “March, maybe April.” It won’t involve super middleweight contender Avani Yildirim, who was expected to take on Benavidez after his controversial technical loss to Anthony Dirrell last February.
“(Yildirim) is not ready, so we’re trying to work out the details,” Lewkowicz said. “I don’t know if Yildirim got hurt. I don’t know, that’s what I heard.”
Jarrett Hurd hired a new trainer and went back to the fundamentals after his unanimous-decision loss to Julian Williams in May.
The last time we saw Jarrett Hurd in the ring he was humbled.
Julian Williams, the superior, more-polished boxer, destroyed in one fight the perception that the then-unbeaten Hurd was a force of nature, a big, strong bruiser who tended to start slowly but whose opponents would eventually wilt under his relentless pressure.
Williams won a unanimous decision to take Hurd’s junior middleweight titles and send him back to the drawing board this past May.
That included a change of trainers, from longtime mentor Ernesto Rodriguez to Kay Koroma, with whom he’s worked in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Koroma is an assistant coach with the USA national boxing team. And while Hurd could’ve jumped back into the ring with Williams, he decided to take things more slowly.
Hurd (23-1, 16 KOs) will face veteran Francisco Santana (25-7-1, 12 KOs) on the Danny Garcia-Ivan Redkach card Saturday at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Showtime.
“I’m so focused on taking care of Francisco Santana,” Hurd said. “I can’t look past him. He’s a guy who comes forward. This is a fight where I want to see how things work out with my new trainer Kay Koroma, but Santana comes to fight just like Jeison Rosario did (in a victory over Williams). I have to be on my toes.”
Hurd acknowledges what seemed evident against Williams, that he relied too much on physical pressure and punch volume to win fights.
In retrospect, it’s easy to see that at some point he was bound to run into an exceptional, resourceful boxer who could withstand his physical strength and work rate and outpoint him. That’s what happened against Williams, who put Hurd down in Round 2 and won by scores of 116-111, 115-112, 115-112.
“People say this is the new Jarrett, but I feel like it’s the old me and I’m just getting back to it,” Hurd said. “I used my defense and my height against Frank Galarza [in 2015] and other earlier fights. But when I was training for Erislandy Lara [in 2018], I was developing this pressure style and we didn’t have enough of the fundamentals set behind it.
“I look back at my fights and it kind of scares me all the hits I was taking. I had back to back Fight of the Year battles. Those were back and forth fights. I don’t want those each and every year. I want to win in one-sided fashion.
“I was close to becoming undisputed champion at 154 pounds and that’s still a goal of mine. I want to accomplish that feat in this division before we move up. I know I had a bad night against Julian Williams, but it was just a small hiccup. I’m coming back for my number one spot.”
Koroma told the Premier Boxing Champions website that Hurd will be a better fighter because of his experience in the loss to Williams.
“I feel like he wasn’t fully prepared mentally,” Koroma said. “Mental preparation is a big thing. In this fight, he had to use his mind. It was hard for him to make the adjustments during the fight. And no offense to J-Rock; he came in there on his game. Everybody is always saying Jarrett comes from [behind] and wins in the later rounds. But a person can get in there with a game plan that says, ‘I don’t want to be the person Jarrett Hurd does that to.’
“I feel like the fight can only make Jarrett better because now he realizes he has to start faster, box more, stay off the ropes, let his hands go a little bit more. He has to be smart, he can’t be playing catch up.”
No surprise: Koroma and Hurd have focused on fundamentals in camp.
“We’ve been working on defense, so he can read when punches are coming,” Koroma said. “Being in the right position to get away from the punch but also be able to throw a counter. When to throw power, when to touch, when not to fight backwards, knowing where you are in the ring so all the judges can see you scoring.”
“Jarrett sparred right before we came to Colorado. This was the first time we left the gym to spar. I told him I wanted to see him use his jab and not go on the ropes. Jarrett did that, but also what happened was – being I didn’t fill his head up with a lot of other stuff – he started doing everything we worked on. He started countering his opponents, he didn’t throw power, he let his hands go, he slipped punches and stayed balanced. Jarrett was like, ‘I liked that.’”
Hurd gets it.
“We’ve worked a lot on fundamentals with my new trainer,” he said. “It’s not that we didn’t have them before, but we’ve focused on them much more. It’s not all about heart and will in a fight. Sometimes you have to get back to the basics.”
Jeison Rosario gave fans two for the price of one, a brutal knockout and a major upset, on Saturday night.
GOOD
Two things that boxing fans love are brutal knockouts and major upsets. They got both over an entertaining weekend.
Julian Williams seemed to stake his claim as one of the best fighters in the world when he defeated then-unbeaten Jarrett Hurd to win two 154-pound titles in May. On Saturday, a relative unknown named Jeison Rosario cut Williams, beat him up and knocked him out on national television.
In the process, Willliams, who was also stopped by Jermall Charlo, was forced to reevaluate once again. And Rosario, a strapping Dominican, emerged instantaneously as a world champion and major player.
The result was truly stunning. From the second round on, after Williams was cut above his left eye, Rosario dominated him to a greater degree than Williams handled Hurd. When it was over, after the referee jumped in to save Williams from further punishment, there were no complaints. Rosario did a job.
And Rosario’s reaction was a touching reminder of what that level of success – after so many sacrifices, so many years of toiling in the gym and ring – means to a fighter. He wept as the belts were placed on his shoulders.
The rematch should be fascinating.
Meanwhile, on a different network, Eleider Alvarez made it clear with a single punch that he remains an important 175-pounder in spite of a one-year layoff. His rocket-like right hand in the seventh round put Michael Seals down and out, thus setting Alvarez up for more big fights.
It was good weekend for Rosario, Alvarez and the fans.
Julian Williams’ career could be in the balance if he fights Jeison Rosario in a rematch. Stephanie Trapp / TGB Pronmotions
BAD
Williams has the wherewithal to bounce back from his brutal knockout loss to Rosario.
J-Rock has the ability, the experience and the mind set. I was impressed by his demeanor and his words after the fight. He said, in so many words, that Rosario was simply the better man on this night and made it clear that he planned to exercise the rematch clause, his way of saying, “I’ll get it right next time.”
No excuses, plenty of confidence.
Why not? Williams has bounced back before. He was knocked down by a right uppercut and then stopped by Charlo in 2016 only to claw his way back to elite status and take down a feared fighter in Hurd.
And, if they have an immediate rematch, he won’t have to rebuild his reputation over a series of fights. All he has to do is beat Rosario – just as Anthony Joshua did against Andy Ruiz Jr. in their second fight – to make things right again.
That would be easier said than done, though. Rosario’s victory didn’t seem to be a fluke. He attacked Williams with skill and purpose from the second round on. And when he had him hurt, the beast inside him finished the job in devastating fashion.
Indeed, Rosario beat up Williams to a point where he seemed relieved that it was over. That’s not a good memory to take into a rematch.
Plus, it’s not unfair to wonder about Williams’ chin. He has suffered brutal knockout losses in two of his last seven fights. Maybe he simply got caught by the wrong punches each time, maybe it was more than that.
I understand why MMA fighters want to face the top boxers. They know they can’t win – or should know – but can make a lot of money. Think Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather.
And I know the reason boxers are open to facing their cage-fighting counterparts: no risk, big reward. Mayweather took home a nine-figure payday even though there was virtually no chance he could lose to a boxing novice.
All that is what you call good business.
It’s just not boxing, which is the depressing part of all this. Fans might buy into this boxing vs. MMA garbage for whatever their reasons are but this fan wants nothing to do with encounters that are more akin to WWE events than competitive boxing matches.
I want to know that the challenger or underdog has a chance to actually win the fight. I remember watching the Mayweather-McGregor fight thinking, “OK, how and when is he going to win?” when I should’ve been thinking, “WILL he win?”
After all, sanctioned matches are supposed to be actual sporting events, not ridiculous exhibitions.
Alas, it’s also “prize fighting.” The fighters do this for a living. And if they can make a lot money — particularly with minimal risk – no one could blame them for seizing the opportunity. I’d probably do the same thing.
That doesn’t mean I have to like it, though. I don’t. I think it degrades the sport. And I wouldn’t watch it if I weren’t in this business.
Promoter Sampson Lewkowicz always knew that Jeison Rosario was going to knock out Julian Williams, even if no on else shared that opinion.
A few weeks ago, at a meeting to discuss the upcoming junior middleweight title fight between champion Julian Williams and unsung challenger Jeison Rosario, Sampson Lewkowicz, Rosario’s promoter, put down a bold prediction.
“I told them (the people in the meeting) this isn’t going past six [rounds]. Rosario will stop [Williams],” Lewkowicz told Boxing Junkie. “Everyone looked at me like I was stupid.”
Williams, naturally, was heavily favored to win. How heavy? One sports book made him a 33-1 favorite, a reflection no doubt of the dominating fashion in which Williams defeated Jarrett Hurd last year to win his titles. Plus, contender Nathaniel Gallimore had knocked out Rosario in 2017; Williams easily outpointed Gallimore when they fought in 2018. No matter, for Lewkowicz, it was Rosario by early knockout.
“‘Oh, you’re joking,’ they said,” Lewkowiczrecalled. “No! It’s not a joke. I’m telling you this guy ‘Banana’ Rosario will knock [Williams] out.”
And that’s exactly what happened. On Saturday night, in Williams’ hometown of Philadelphia, the relatively unknown Dominican stopped the incumbent in the fifth round to capture two belts. After a strong opening round for Williams, Rosario went to work in Round 2, connecting on some hard shots to the body and head, one of which opened up a cut over Williams’ left eye. In Round 5, Rosario landed a left hook that badly shook up Williams. Rosario added the finishing touches with a booming uppercut followed by a right and clean-up left hook before referee Benjy Esteves jumped in to stop the fight.
“The power of Rosario [made me confident],” Lewkowicz said. “Every fight he went to the other fighter’s backyard and it was too much pressure and he would make a mistake.”
Lewkowicz paused, then quipped, “I don’t know why everyone was shocked.”
Lewkowicz wasn’t being facetious. The 69-year-old Uruguayan-American, after all, made his name as one of the sport’s preeminent scouts. When it comes to snatching up promising boxers from around the globe, no one had a better track record or sharper set of eyes than Lewkowicz. The more obscure the boxer, the better. His resume includes discovering the likes of Manny Pacquiao and Sergio Martinez. Lewkowicz’s other current titleholder is super middleweight David Benavidez.
“One way or another I’ve had 32 champion,” Lewkowicz said. “When I used to be with ‘Maravilla’ Martinez, one guy told me, ‘You’re like a roach. It doesn’t matter what poison they give you, you always come back with someone else.”
Count Rosario as Lewkowicz’s latest diamond in the rough.
“I believe I should have gotten some respect when I say my guy would knock [Williams] out,” Lewkowicz said.
So then, what’s next? Well, says Lewkowicz, it’s up to Williams. A rematch clause is in place, but Williams must pull the trigger. Lewkowicz doesn’t advise rushing back into the ring, however, certainly not against Rosario.
“If you want the rematch, we will (honor) it, but I don’t recommend it,” Lewkowicz said. “I believe (Williams) needs to recoup himself, fight a [tune up] and come back and get the rematch. But it’s up to him.
“But I strongly do not recommend it. I watched the fight again and Rosario is too strong. I promise that whatever is the decision, the result will be the same.”
If nothing else, Lewkowicz is confident that his charge won’t let the sudden fame get to his head. After the win on Saturday night, the team made sure to celebrate – with water.
“This kid,” Lewkowicz said, “is a real clean-cut kid.”
Julian Williams’ knockout loss to Jeison Rosario on Saturday put a damper on his pound-for-pound hopes.
Julian Williams had said that his goal was to become the No. 1 fighter pound-for-pound. Well, that’s going to be a lot more difficult now.
Williams, who had been an honorable mention on the Boxing Junkie list of best fighters, was knocked out in five rounds by relatively obscure Jeison Rosario to lose his junior middleweight titles Saturday in Philadelphia.
“JRock” probably will get another crack at Rosario because of a rematch clause. However, even a victory would only be a small step toward pound-for-pound supremacy.
Williams rebounded from disappointment before, climbing back to elite status after he was knocked out by Jermall Charlo. But coming back from two knockouts? That’s not easy.
Alas, Williams is off our list after his setback Saturday. Replacing him as an honorable mention is Teofimo Lopez, the unbeaten lightweight titleholder who is coming off a sensational second-round knockout of Richard Commey in December.
Lopez, 22, could face his own Waterloo soon; he’s negotiating to meet Vasiliy Lomachenko, Boxing Junkie’s No. 1 fighter. Of course, a victory would catapult Lopez into the Top 10.
You just never know. Ask Williams.
Check out our pound-for-pound list below. And let us know what you think.
Jeison Rosario stopped Julian Williams in the fifth round to win two junior middleweight titles Saturday in Philadelphia.
Julian Williams is getting to know the highs and lows in boxing all too intimately.
Williams turned in the performance of his career last May, stopping then-unbeaten Jarrett Hurd to win two of the four major junior middleweight titles and put a knockout loss to Jermall Charlo far behind him. On Saturday at Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, he was rudely reminded of that crushing setback.
Jeison Rosario, a strapping but little-known contender from the Dominican Republic, stunned everyone watching by cutting, hurting and then brutally knocking out Williams at 1:37 of the fifth round to become a 154-pound world champion.
Rosario, a 24-year-old first-time titleholder, wept as the belts were placed on his shoulders after the fight.
“I gotta keep crying because I’m so emotional in this moment right now,” he said through a translator. “When I lost my last fight I said I’d never lose again until I won the championship of the world and that’s what happened tonight.
“I came prepared. So I knew before the fight I was going to win it.”
Not too many others did.
Rosario (20-1-1, 14 KOs) was 7-0-1 against solid opposition since he was stopped by Nathaniel Gallimore in 2017 but he didn’t seem to be a realistic threat to Williams, who was coming off a sensational victory and had climbed onto some pound-for-pound lists.
The first round seemed to support that line of thinking, as Williams, an excellent technician, outboxed Rosario fairly easily.
Then, in the second round, a jab from Rosario opened a cut on Williams’ left eye lid and everything changed. Suddenly, Williams was somewhat tentative because of the cut and, it seemed, Rosario was emboldened. We had a fight.
Williams pawed at the blood dripping into his eye occasionally but remained competitive for the next few give-and-take rounds, as the outcome of the fight was still in doubt. And then, in an instant, it wasn’t. In Round 5, Rosario landed a hard right that stunned Williams and then followed with an overwhelming onslaught of power punches.
Williams was able to remain on his feet until, while attempting to hold Rosario, he fell to the canvas. He was able to get up slowly but his eyes were glassy and his legs were shaky. He was in big trouble.
Rosario picked up where he left off by landing a vicious right uppercut, followed by a left hook that prompted referee Benjy Esteves to jump between the fighters and stop the fight. Esteves looked Williams in the eye and the now-former champion nodded, his way of saying that the referee made the right move.
Just like that, a fighter whose impressive performance in his previous fight seemed to portend a long reign at the top was cut down by a fighter with whom few were familiar. Such is boxing.
“I wasn’t surprised,” he said immediately afterward. “I kept telling everybody this was a real fight. … I have to accept it. [The cut] blurred my vision a little bit but that wasn’t the reason why. He was just a better fighter tonight.”
Where does Williams go from here?
He was knocked out by Charlo in five rounds in 2016 only to battle back into contention and upset Hurd. And now, as a result of another fifth-round knockout, he would appear to be where he was after the Charlo fight.
Not so fast, though. One thing is different.
“We have a rematch clause,” he said. “We’ll see him again real soon.”
Chris Colbert defeated Jezreel Corrales by a unanimous decision on Saturday in Philadelphia.
Sometimes important victories aren’t pretty.
That was the case on Saturday for Chris Colbert, who was frustrated much of his fight against slick, yet reluctant Jezreel Corrales but emerged with a unanimous-decision victory on the Julian Williams-Jeison Rosario card Saturday in Philadelphia.
With the victory, Colbert claimed the “interim” WBA junior lightweight title. Leo Santa Cruz is the actual WBA 130-pound champion.
Colbert (14-0, 5 KOs) was the aggressor throughout the fight Saturday but Corrales, an excellent boxer, did everything possible to avoid engagement – run, hold (excessively) and only occasionally throw counter punches.
As a result, Colbert had to work hard for every punch he was able to land. And he landed more than enough to win the fight.
Corrales (23-4, 9 KOs) came out of his defensive posture at times during the fight, which allowed him to land some clean punches and win a few rounds, but not enough to seriously challenge Colbert.
To his credit, Colbert never stopped charging forward. And his persistence paid off most in the 10th round, when a short left-right combination put Corrales down.
He also wobbled Corrales in Round 11 and, a few seconds before the end the round, he tossed the Panamanian through the ropes and out of the ring.
The final scores were 116-111, 117-110, 117-110.
“Corrales is a great fighter,” Colbert said. “… He’s very awkward, he’s slick, he’s fast. I was kind of hard to catch him because he was running.”
Was it a great performance by Colbert? No. At the same time, Colbert worked with what Corrales gave him, which wasn’t much. And he had his hand raised.
Colbert said he would like to fight Santa Cruz for the title but, if it doesn’t happen, he’ll be patient. He’s only 23 years old.
“I’m not ducking nobody,” he said. “I’m not dodging nobody. I’m here to stay.”
Also on the card, in a six-round junior middleweight bout, 19-year-old prospect Joey Spencer (10-0, 7 KOs) defeated Erik Spring (13-4-2, 1 KO) by a shutout decision.
Julian Williams stunned the boxing world by upsetting Jarrett Hurd to win a major title. Now he’s setting his sights on even bigger things.
Junior middleweight titleholder Julian Williams isn’t content to win a major belt or two. He’s thinking bigger – much bigger. He wants to become the No. 1 fighter pound for pound in the world.
“J-Rock” took his biggest step in that direction when he stunned the boxing world by taking then-unbeaten Jarrett Hurd’s title on May 11 of last year. He defends for the first time against Jeison Rosario on Saturday at Liacouras Center in his hometown of Philadelphia on Fox.
And then, assuming things go well, it’s on to bigger challenges required to attain greatness.
“I’m not satisfied with just being the best super welterweight in the world,” he told PremierBoxingChampions.com. “Why sell myself short when I have the drive and the ability to be the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world? . . . I’d be leaving millions of dollars on the table.”
Jeison Rosario (right) will likely learn that Julian Williams is no joke Saturday in Philadelphia. Stephanie Trapp / TGP Promotions
That concept would’ve been unthinkable late in the evening on Dec. 10, 2016, the date then-154-pound titleholder Jermall Charlo put Williams down three times and stopped him in five rounds in his first title shot.
The perception of Williams changed instantaneously, from a complete fighter with a bright future to just another contender with a suspect chin. Williams only became more determined.
The typically tough product of a tough town went back to the gym immediately and fought again six months later, a seventh-round TKO of Joshua Conley that served as the first step back toward the top.
“I think people change like day and night,” he told PBC. “It’s been said boxers are loved conditionally: That they win, they look good and they look dominant. You can’t shortchange anyone in boxing, because you’ll be considered exposed, or not that good, or all those other terms they come up with.
“It’s what have you done for me lately. Nobody cares about the (New England) Patriots now. They’re only the greatest team in (NFL) history but nobody cares because they’re not in the playoffs.”
Williams (27-1-1, 16 KOs) fought his way back into title contention. He easily outpointed durable Ishe Smith in November 2017. He defeated Nathanial Galimore by a majority decision the following April, although most observers thought he won clearly.
And he stopped Francisco Javier Castro in two rounds in December 2018 to earn a shot at Hurd’s junior middleweight title on May 11 of last year in Fairfax, Virginia.
Hurd at that time was seen as a physical phenomenon. The 154-pound champion made weight on the scale but seemed to have the strength of a light heavyweight, which allowed him to swallow up almost all of his opponents. If any champion at that time was unbeatable, it seemed, it was him.
Williams knew better. He knew he was the better boxer, the better all-around fighter. And he proved it.
The challenger outboxed, outworked and outthought the champion – even putting him down once – and was more than durable enough to handle anything Hurd threw at him. The result was a stunning unanimous-decision victory and one the most-impressive performances in recent years.
Williams was elated but not surprised. Neither was his longtime trainer, Stephen “Breadman” Edwards.
“Even though I was confident he was going to win, to accomplish it physically is different,” Edwards told PBC. “It was like a monkey was off our back. It was joy, relief, happiness, and your pride kicks in, the competitive spirit, to shut everybody up. I’ve had very few feelings like that in my life.”
Williams also knows better than to take Rosario (19-1-1, 13 KOs) for granted.
The Miami-based Dominican is unbeaten in eight fights (7-0-1) since Gallimore stopped him in six rounds in 2017. Gallimore was his best opponent, meaning he’s never faced anyone like Williams.
However, Rosario is a solid fighter. And he might’ve learned something by watching Williams defeat Hurd.
“You can never underestimate what a man has been through, how hungry he is, how hard he’s been training,” Williams said. “I know I inspired a lot of people with that performance [against Hurd], and that made people believe they can do the unthinkable.”
Julian Williams is excited to make his first title defense in front of his hometown fans in Philadelphia.
Julian Williams overcame a knockout loss to Jermall Charlo in 2016 to realize his dream of becoming a world champion in May. And he did it by outpointing a junior middleweight who was unbeaten and on the rise, Jarrett Hurd.
Now comes the hard part – hanging onto his two belts.
Williams (27-1-1, 16 KOs) will make his first defense against tough Miami-based Dominican Jeison Rosario (19-1-1, 13 KOs) on Jan. 18 at Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Williams’ hometown. The fight will be televised on Fox and Fox Deportes.
“It took a lot for us to get the title,” Williams said. “We had some bumps in the road. But me and my team, we just kept battling and fighting through. We finally got our breakthrough fight and got the titles, and we wanted to bring the titles right back to Philadelphia.
“It’s amazing to have this opportunity to come back home and perform in front of my home crowd.”
Of course, Rosario doesn’t enter the fight with a reputation similar to that of Hurd but he’s on his own comeback run. He was stopped by Nathaniel Gallimore in April 2017 but is 7-0-1 against solid opposition since then.
Williams has respect for him.
“Rosario is a really good fighter and I’m not just saying that,” Williams said. “They’ve been matching him tough and he’s been coming through fights he wasn’t supposed to win. I’m expecting a really tough fight and for him to be in shape.
“He’s got 36 minutes to change his life forever. I was in his exact same position very recently. It would be extremely arrogant for me to think I can’t lose.”
Williams will be fighting in his hometown for the third time but the first time since 2011 and the first time as a world titleholder. He can’t wait to bring his belts into the ring.
“I haven’t actually thought about fight night and what it will feel like,” he said. “I can only imagine it will be amazing seeing the people who have watched me fight since I was a teenager. I’m pretty sure as it gets closer to the fight, I’ll start thinking about it and it will give me an extra push in camp.”
