NIGHT OF THE DUAL UPSETS – AUSTIN AND WILLIAMS BOTH LOSENIGHT OF THE DUAL UPSETS – AUSTIN AND WILLIAMS BOTH LOSE
By Ron Brashear
Inside Boxing Writer/Columnist
(IB – February 16. 2003) – Normally if you ever hear that Cincinnati went
0 for
2 in one night, you would have to believe the story is pertaining to the
Cincinnati Reds baseball team.
Well, on Saturday night 2/15/03, the story is actually about two prominent
boxers from Cincinnati that were on the receiving end of experiencing their
first losses as professional fighters. First, on the under card, Ricardo
Williams Jr.(8-1, 5 KOs), the 2000 Olympic team silver medalists, took on a
replacement fighter by the name of Juan Valenzuela (16-6, 6KOs) in a Jr.
Welterweight contest.
To the surprise of practically everyone, other than Valenzuela, it was Juan
Valenzuela that took the fight to Williams and won a unanimous decision (98-92,
97-93, 97-93) by being the aggressor and being relentless in his attack with
right-hand leads and body shots. This fight was suppose to be a showcase fight
of Williams (the rising 140lb star) with a big future ahead of him.
As if that was enough to create the buzz throughout the crowd on hand at Caesars
Palace in Vegas, then comes the main event.
Tim “Cincinnati Kid” Austin, now (25-1-1, 22 KOs) brought his unblemished (25-0)
record to the ring in search of his 10th straight IBF Bantamweight title defense
over Rafael Marquez (29-3, 27 KOs). After being in a very competitive fight that
called for toe-to-toe exchanges for most of the fight at close quarters, it was
Rafael Marquez that was able to unleash the combinations that literally knocked
Austin through the ropes in the 8th round. To Austin’s credit, he was able to
make it back to his feet, however, Marquez began to reign additional punches on
Austin and the referee stopped the fight at 2:20 of the 8th round.
Its rare that you have dual upsets take place on the same card but this night
turned out to be just that. A pair of upsets delivered by a pair of ambitious
Mexican fighters who came to the ring to be much more than just opponents, they
came to win, and win is what they did in crowd-pleasing fashion! Hats off to
both Rafael Marquez and Juan Valenzuela for their great performances.
You have just gone InsideBoxing.com
Ron Brashear can be contacted at
brashear@insideboxing.com,
ron@brasheargear.com
Tim “Cincinnati Kid” Austin, now (25-1-1, 22 KOs) brought his unblemished (25-0)
record to the ring in search of his 10th straight IBF Bantamweight title defense
over Rafael Marquez (29-3, 27 KOs). After being in a very competitive fight that
called for toe-to-toe exchanges for most of the fight at close quarters, it was
Rafael Marquez that was able to unleash the combinations that literally knocked
Austin through the ropes in the 8th round. To Austin’s credit, he was able to
make it back to his feet, however, Marquez began to reign additional punches on
Austin and the referee stopped the fight at 2:20 of the 8th round.