Tag: Liacouras Center

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.”

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.”

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 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.”