Williams Decimates Quintana
Mora Humiliates Forrest

By Christopher “The Swami” Connor
www.dqrm.com Last Call


Paul Williams finally did something that most fans wanted him to do. He let his hands go and attacked. And Carlos Quintana had no answer for it as the "Punisher" scored a first round KO victory at 2:15 to reclaim his WBO title.

It was a satisfying victory as Williams had dropped the title to Quintana earlier in February at California. Since then Williams had been dogged with questions of his weight, punching power, and if he could beat a tricky southpaw fighter. But after the first couple of seconds, the questions seemed to answer all his questions and doubters.

"I had good sparring and good training and just felt good going into this fight." Williams stated after his big win.

With the victory, Williams has now emerged as a clear favorite to take on the winner of Miguel Cotto vs. Antonio Margarito on July 26th as well as regaining the shine on his reputation that had been tarnished.

A dejected Quintana stated "It was an off night."

The Aiken native had earlier changed camps from his usual Puerto Rico camp to move back to South Carolina to train in a more secluded area. Williams dropped Quintana first with a right hand to cause the crowd to come to its feet. As a groggy Quintana got back up at the count of 8, Williams immediately jumped on him attacking with the overhand right before  Quintana collapsed face first, taking Williams down in the process.


For the past year and a half, Sergio Mora was called everything from the "Latin Fake" to the "Spanish Worm". He had been dogged for not taking the Jermain Taylor title fight and for basically getting gifts in wins over Peter Manfredo. But after getting verbally blasted by media members and especially Vernon Forrest, the "Latin Snake" showed everyone why he was the Contender Champion as he out boxed the "Viper" to claim the 154 WBC title.

Mora used his awkward boxing style, in and out punches and controlled aggression to keep the lanky Forrest at bay and slow the pace down to his strength as he shocked most boxing pundits.

Despite being booed coming into the fight by the Mohegan Sun Crowd, Mora seemed to have won them over with his aggressive punching and "snake taunt" to score a majority decision over Vernon Forrest (116-112, 115-113, 114-114) in what can be described as the biggest win for any "Contender" fighter in the history of their existence.

Forrest looked tired and old for most of the fight as he tried to land the big punch while Mora used his youth and experience to out hustle the veteran two time world champion. Insiders stated that Forrest had not trained as hard for this fight citing lack of respect for Mora and the delay in the fight as the reason. Meanwhile Mora appeared to not back down from the challenge and verbally taunted Forrest reminiscent of Nate Campbell's actions against Juan Diaz.

As the fight wore on, Mora continued to steal rounds by using his elusive defensive style and aggressive punching to take it to Forrest. The biggest winner had to be Sergio Martinez, as the Spaniard had a huge grin on his face over the prospect of taking on Mora later on in the year.

"Thank God this is a dream of mine. You can't prepare for Vernon and I deserve this." Mora exclaimed. "I couldn't relax and didn't allow myself to get over confident."

Mora now improves to 21-0-1 as Forrest falls to 40-3.

"He had a good game plan, I take nothing from him, he fought a very good fight." Forrest remarked.


The most impressive fight of the undercard was Bowie Tupou's second round TKO over Otis Tisdale at 1:36 to improve to 14-0 with 11 KO's. Under the tutelage of Jeff Mayweather, the Tongan power house used a series of right and left hooks to the body to take out the Connecticut native.

"Jeff has gotten me more focused on boxing and less on being a UFC style tough guy." Bowie stated to the press. "The plan was to attack the body as usually its the weaker part of the fighter."

Sergio Martinez has a tougher than expected time but still knocked down Archak "Shark Attack" TerMeliksetian to become the top contender for the WBC Light Middleweight title. In a fight that was more exciting than promised, both fighters traded punches for most of the six rounds, as Martinez played more of the counter puncher as "Shark Attack" initiated most of the attack. However in the seventh round, Martinez intensified the attack, knocking down TerMeliksetian three times to improve to 43-1-1, 23 KOs. TerMeliksetian dropped to 16-7 but got the crowd's approval as he knocked down Archak "Shark Attack" TerMeliksetian three times to score a seventh round TKO when referee Danny Chiavonne had seen enough. Both fighters connected with several power punches however it was Martinez that was more effective with his right hook. It was that same right that staggered TerMeliksetian into the ropes for the third knockdown causing the stoppage. With the victory, Martinez is now the #1 contender in the WBC in the 154 pound division.

The world lightweight champion Melissa Hernandez made another big statement as she scored a 2nd round TKO victory over Missy Fiorentino to improve to 9-1-2. This fight meant more to Hernandez as she avenged her trainer, Belinda Laracuente, two previous losses to Fiorentino. The fight was a clash of styles as the wily New York-Puerto Rican used her jab and boxing skills to counter the relentless brawling style of Fiorentino.

In the third round Hernandez caused a gash above the right eye of Fiorentino that some thought was the cause of a head butt. Hernandez attacked the cut using her jab and left hook to cause the ringside doctor to stop the fight at 1:03 at round three.

Hernandez improved to 8-1-2 (3 KO's) while Fiorentino dropped to 17-2 (6 KO's) near her hometown of Cranston, RI.

"I knew I had to score a knockout victory as I was fighting in her own hometown." Hernandez stated. "I have beaten the Canadian champion (Lisa Brown) and the California champion (Layla McCarter) in their hometown."

"I want Ina Menzer next. I don't fight puff fighters or cutie pies. I am a real boxer and I only want to take on the best in the world." Hernandez countered.

Bones Adams had a tough time as his comeback tour was derailed due to a no-contest against Jesus Perez due to an accidental headbutt. The bout was going Adams way as he showed the jab and veteran defensive tactics that led him to be a world champion. However a accidental headbutt caused Lopez to gush blood over his right eye as the referee stopped the fight with 1:58 in the third round.