Adonis Stevenson Stuns the Crowd with a 4th round KO of Thomas Williams, JR
By Richard “Doc” Pratt
Two southpaws came together tonight from Quebec’s brand new Centre Videotron for the WBC World Heavyweight title held by Adonis Stevenson, 27-1, 22 KO’s. He faced off against Thomas Williams, JR., 20-1, 14 KO’s with 13 of the 14 being in 3 rounds or less.
Stevenson came out in the first jabbing aggressively and countering Williams well with the left and his own jab. Williams was trying to be a tough to find target by moving his head but to no avail. Stevenson managed to catch Williams at the 2:30 mark of the 1st with a big left, his trademark and most feared punch, as Williams was ducking sideways, putting Williams down for an 8 count. Thomas now going got broke with wild punches at the end of the first. 10-8, Stevenson.
The 2nd started with Adonis coming forward and Thomas throwing huge looping shots obviously seeking to get the KO early. These KO attempts were leaving his chin rather exposed for Adonis to target. Stevenson catches Williams a few times and Thomas paws at his chin as if to say “come get it, your shots ain’t nothing”. Williams managed to slow Stevenson with a nice right. He then cranks it up and is going for broke with big looping punches and heavy shots to the body of Adonis. Williams seems to have wobbled Stevenson at the end of the 2nd and takes the round. 19-18, Stevenson still ahead.
Williams comes out in the 3rd getting aggressive and throwing haymakers making Adonis fight off his back foot unbalanced and scoring some heavy shots. Adonis, throwing some hard shots himself, scores to the body. Williams throws a huge uppercut and misses and Stevenson throws one of his own as they exchange some big punches at the end of the round. Williams takes the 3rd evening up the fight on my card 28-28.
Round 4 starts with a quick exchange and Williams goes to the canvas after Stevenson lands a rather big low blow. Williams doesn’t need long to recover. The fighters come together for some in fighting with both seemingly trying to KO the other right then and there. In this exchange, there’s a clash of heads and both fighters get warned. Adonis is working the body in close. A 1-2 by Adonis pushes Williams back and has him ducking sideways when Stevenson drops a sledge hammer like left that drops Thomas to the canvas for a 10 count giving the KO-4, 2:54 to Stevenson as he retains his title for the 7th straight time.
The co-main event had Eleider Alvarez, 19-0, 10 KO’s up against Robert Berridge, 27-4, 21 KO’s, in a rather lopsided Light Heavyweight bout.
Alvarez was the aggressor throughout the bout and was able to win all but one round on my card and losing 2 on two of the judges’ cards. The 3rd judge scored it 99-90? Not sure where the point deduction came from. I guess judging a fight can be quite confusing at times. So it seems. The victory going to Eleider Alvarez non the less.
As a filler, PBC threw in a delayed playback of an earlier undercard fight pitting Immanuwel Aleem, 16-0, 9 KO’s against Demond Nicholson, 17-1, 16 KO’s. in an 8 round Middleweight contest.
These boxers know each other from their amateur carriers and have fought before and traded wins. Aleem proved to be very skilled, quick and slick. His aggressive technique was, in my eyes, rather dominating. He controlled the pace of the fight throughout and was connecting 2-3 to 1. In the 7th, Aleem connected with a counter right that had Nicholson stunned and grabbing Aleem to prevent himself from going down. Clearly he was hurt but as he went down after holding on it was ruled a slip by referee Steve St. Germain.
This kid Immanuwel Aleem looks REAL good and I look forward to seeing him move up the ranks. I had him winning all but 2 rounds while one judge had it 77-75 Aleem and the other two 76-76 for a majority draw. This, in my book, was solid evidence to the ineptitude within the ranks of judging in professional boxing.
As I sit here and scratch my head I ask. Did anyone else see this fight the same way as I? Heavy sigh!
Until next time. Keep your gloves up and elbows in!
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