Former welterweight titlist and interim junior middleweight titleholder Paul Williams (37-1, 27 KO’s) solidified his position as a major player in the middleweight bout with a lopsided unanimous decision over former junior middleweight world champ Winky Wright (51-5-1, 25 KO’s). Official scores were 119-109 (twice) and 120 – 108 for Williams in the 160 pound fight.
Williams utilized a ridiculous punch output to punish his opponent, living up to his nickname “The Punisher”. Official punch stats, according to HBO, showed Williams outlanding Wright 247 to 116 and out throwing his opponent 1086 to 511.
Following the bout, Williams declared he was ready for middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik and titleholder Arthur Abraham. He also alluded to wanting a fight with the recently retired Joe Calzaghe in a super middleweight fight.
Wright, who was coming off a 20 month layoff, has now lost two fights consecutively. He says he continues to fight on and be more active.
In the evening’s co-feature, Cristobal Arreola (27-0, 24 KO’s) solidified his place as the most exciting young American heavyweight with 4th round knockout of former world title challenger Jameel McCline (39-10-3, 23 KO’s).
It was a big right hand from Arreola that landed flush sending McCline to the canvas in the 4th. McCline was counted out and the official time of the stoppage was 2:01.
Prior to the evening’s main event, a ten bell salute was held in honor of Artie Curry, the longtime HBO fighter relations coordinator, who passed away earlier this week unexpectedly.
