By: Rich Lopez
Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) started the New Year with a possible upset of the year candidate. The card was held at Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and televised on FOX. It was supposed to be a homecoming win for local favorite Julian Williams. However, it turned out to be the Jeison Rosario show.
The upset took place in the main event as Jeison “Banana”Rosario (20-1-1, 14 KO’s) of the Dominican Republic stopped Julian “J-Rock” Williams (27-2-1, 16 KO’s) of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the 5th round. Rosario captured the WBA and IBF World Super Welterweight Titles and a new champion was crowned.
In the opening round, Williams started off by establishing his jab while Rosario was the aggressor. Williams had a good round and landed some good right hands on the head of Rosario. Once round two got underway, Rosario cut the left eye of Williams with a left jab. The cut bothered Williams and both fighters started to exchange punches with Rosario getting the better of them. Round three was action packed as both fighters traded punches in the inside. Williams landed more punches than Rosario but it was close. In round four, Rosario was starting to land his jab. In the center of the ring, both fighters traded blows again. Then disaster came for Williams in round five. Rosario landed a right hand followed by a left hook that wobbled Williams. Rosario went for it and threw many hard punches to finish off Williams. Williams grabbed Rosario and fell down. Williams managed to get up but very slow. Rosario went for the finish and landed a right uppercut and then a left hook that staggered Williams again which prompted the ref to stop the fight.
No complaints on the stoppage as Williams was basically out on his feet. The finish came out at 1:37 of the 5th round.
Julian Williams defeated Jarett Hurd last year to win the IBF and WBA titles. Once again the championship changed hands and according to the odds makers, it was a huge upset. Rosario was on a mission and trained very hard for the fight and it paid off. An emotional Rosario celebrated his victory while Julian Williams was in shock. Williams did not blame his loss on the cut and he gave Rosario his props for the victory. Williams made Philly proud for putting up a good fight. Jermell Charlo might be the top fighter in super welterweight division but now we have Jeison Rosario to look out for.
In the co-feature, Chris “Primetime” Colbert (14-0, 5 KO’s) of Brooklyn, New York captured the vacant Interim WBA Super Featherweight Title. He won a twelve round unanimous decision over former world champion Jezreel “Invisible” Corrales (23-4, 9 KO’s) of Panama. The fight was a test for Colbert as he faced off against a former world champion. The first round was a feel out round with not much action with both fighters keeping their distance. Colbert moved forward in round two and Corrales landed body shots towards the end of the round. The fight was tactical and the action was slow in round three. Colbert put more pressure in round four and had some better success. Both fighters were landing jabs on each other. In round five, the pace still did not pick up. There was showboating from Colbert and he spend a lot of time switching stances. The pace finally picked up in rounds six and seven. Corrales was starting to land straight left hands to the body of Colbert. As Colbert was the aggressor in the rounds, Corrales did a good job of countering Colbert. In round eight, Colbert started the round well but then the fighters went back to keeping their distance and posing. In round nine, Corrales was firing some good body punches but then started to grab Colbert and used dirty tactics. Colbert broke through in round ten when he dropped Corrales with a left hook and right hand. Corrales managed to get up and finish the round. Colbert picked up where he left off and went right to Corrales in round eleven. Colbert landed a good right hand that stunned Corrales again. Colbert threw a flurry of punches that made Corrales grab again. As Corrales tried to grab, he fell to the canvas and wentout the ropes. It was not a knockdown and Corrales made it back in the ring. In the final round, Corrales just looked to survive and Colbert just boxed his way to the end. The final scores were 116-111, 117-110 (twice) all in favor of Colbert.
Colbert did not get the knockout like his previous fight but he fought a former world champion that gave him rounds. Styles make fights. The style of Corrales was difficult for Colbert throughout the fight but Colbert managed to figure his opponent out and he closed the show. With the victory, Colbert is in line to face WBA World Super Featherweight Champion Leo Santa Cruz. It might be too soon for Colbert, but he feels that he is ready for the challange.
In the opening bout of the telecast, top prospect Joey Spencer(10-0, 7 KO’s) of Linden, Michigan, kept his winning ways. Hedefeated Erik Spring (13-4-2, 1 KO) of Reading, Pennsylvania,by a six round unanimous decision. Once again styles make fights and this particular fight hardly produced any action. This was a slow paced fight from beginning to end. In rounds one and two, both fighters did not do much. Spencer did pick up the pace a little in round three and landed a few shots on Spring. The pace was still slow in round four. Spencer came forward but was having a hard time landing clean shots. Towards the end of the round, Spring went forward but he couldn’t land anything either. In round five, Spencer landed a nice right hand and left hook on the head of Spring. In the final round, Spring made an effort to push the action but it was not much. Spencer landed a left hook at the end to close the round. All judges scored it the same at 60-54 for Joey Spencer.
It was a fight with no action and maybe Spencer could have been more impressive. He looked average in the fight but then again the style of Spring made it difficult to land anything clean on him.