Quintana hoping to punish Williams for a second time…
By Rui Zheng
Carlos Quintana’s breakthrough fight was supposed to be on June 24, 2006. He was making his debut on HBO as an undefeated welterweight prospect. But only Quintana viewed himself as the star of the show, because HBO and boxing fans everywhere tuned in expecting the prospect of the year, the undefeated hard-hitting Joel Julio to easily dispatch of Quintana, who was the clear underdog.
However, Quintana sought to spoil the show and an e
ventual Cotto/Julio matchup. After suffering a flash knockdown early in the fight, Quintana dominated Julio throughout the match and earned him the most satisfactory victory of his career.
In one night, Quintana turned from a secondary prospect to one of the hottest welterweight contenders in the division, which earned him a match with the undefeated junior welterweight titleholder Miguel Cotto for the vacant WBA title. Unlike the Julio fight, boxing experts were picking Quintana to win through lateral movement and timing to offset Cotto’s pressure. Perhaps it was Quintana taking Cotto lightly or maybe it was just Cotto was too strong and experienced for his Puerto Rican counterpart, but Miguel Cotto participated in a 5 round demolition en route to a corner retirement of Quintana.
From the span of 6 months, Quintana went from a minor prospect to a rising contender and following his loss, he was seen as a potential gatekeeper in a highly competitive division.
Meanwhile, Paul Williams had just defeated the “most feared man in 
boxing” in Antonio Margarito and was an unbeaten welterweight the size of Thomas Hearns, with a reach longer than Muhammad Ali’s, and a punch output averaging 100 per round. After a welterweight unification matchup with Kermit Cintron was cancelled due to a Cintron injury, Williams sought to take an easy defense against Quintana. As the fight approached, Quintana was a 6-1 underdog and was not expected to last the distance against Williams.
Taking a page from his bout against Julio, Quintana seemed to excel when the odds are against him. He used brilliant lateral movement and numerous left hand leads to nail Williams throughout the 12 rounds. And through his movement, Williams seemed hesitant to set his feet and get in a rhythm for firing off his combinations.
And now as the rematch approaches, Quintana is again the underdog in the fight according to the bookmakers. I’m honestly unsure of who I would pick. It depends entirely on how Williams prepared in training camp to combat Quintana’s slick style because it truly is a style that is designed to give Williams fits.
Other notes:
- Kelly Pavlik defends his middleweight championship against Welshman Gary Lockett on the same night as the rematch between Quintana and Williams. The reason why I did not make this fight the topic of my article is because this fight is in my eyes a disgrace to boxing. Jermain Taylor’s first two middleweight defenses were against Bernard Hopkins and Winky Wright. Kelly Pavlik’s apparent first two defenses will be against Gary Lockett and Marco Antonio Rubio. The fans want to see Pavlik matched up against Winky Wright, not two average middleweight contenders who will no doubt lose to Pavlik. With Wright willing to travel to Pavlik’s home state of Ohio while taking a lower purse, credit the always ravenous Bob Arum for protecting his cash cow in Pavlik.
- The fight of the night could be between Mexico’s Daniel Ponce De Leon and the hottest rising Puerto Rican prospect in boxing, Juan Manuel Lopez. People can speculate all they want on how the fight will turn out, but here are some facts. Ponce De Leon is a harder puncher than Lopez and is by far more experienced. Ponce De Leon is very susceptible to being outboxed as demonstrated by his lopsided loss to Celestino Caballero. Lopez has the ability to outbox Ponce De Leon, but he has a tendency to get into slugfests. With those three sentences said, I expect a great match.
Previous Articles By Rui Zheng
08/09/07 - Slow Week For Boxing? Not Exactly ...
15/09/07 Pavlik might not be ready for the big stage, but Cotto is ready to embrace it...
23/09/07 Ranking the best pound for pound fighters of all-time: Part I
23/09/07 Ranking the best pound for pound fighters of all-time: Part 2
29/12/07 The Underrated Mike Tyson
13/02/08 Things Look Ghostly for the Vengeful Taylor…
02/03/08 Klitschko disappoints and the heavyweight division is still in shambles…
17/03/08 Marquez cant catch a break ...
09/04/08 Gomez is a live underdog amidst Cotto’s rampage…
19/04/08 Cotto Should be Recognized as the “Interim Lineal” Champion…
06/06/08 Quintana hoping to punish Williams for a second time..