Ringside Boxing Report: Andre Ward vs. Rubin Williams

If Rubin Williams truly was Andre Ward’s first test as a professional, then he passed the exam with relative ease. Fighting in front of a restless home crowd in San Jose on Thursday night, Ward shut out his opponent before a cut forced an end to the bout at the closing of round seven.

The action started slowly, with neither fighter doing much more then exchanging jabs for the better part of two rounds. Yet even the early round jabs foreshadowed what was to be a dominant night for the 2004 Olympic Gold Medallist Andre Ward.

While Ward’s jabs were fast and forceful, Williams offered slow, telegraphed jabs that placed Ward in no danger. An accidental clash of heads highlighted the action in the second round, leaving a laceration over the left eye of Williams.

Perhaps smelling blood, Ward stepped on the proverbial gas pedal in round three, switching to a southpaw stance and landing a pair of sizzling straight left hands that stopped Williams in his tracks as he attempted to move forward.

The Oakland native continued to pour it on in the fourth round, scoring his best punch of the night, a thunderous left uppercut that rocked Williams and had the crowd on it’s feet. Ward poured it on a hapless Williams, landing calculated combinations of left hooks and uppercuts as Rubin lay guarded on the ropes.

While Ward opened up and upped his output, the man known as “Mr. Hollywood” did little to verify his star status. Outmatched by the younger, faster and more exuberant Ward, Williams resorted to looking for one big punch in order to end the fight, a punch that never came. Content with covering up, only offering the occasional lazy jab, Williams could conjure up no semblance of an offensive attack.

Ward followed the big fourth frame with three more rounds that featured him in control of every aspect of the fight. Round five saw continued success for Ward working out of the southpaw stance, including a stiff right jab that put Williams back on his heels. The sixth and seventh followed suit, and Ward once again effectively showcased his newest weapon, his uppercut, to stun Williams in both rounds.

The final seconds of the seventh frame saw the end of the fight. With Williams throwing hardly any punches and tasting a string of successive right hands, referee Jon Schorle called a halt to the action so the ringside physician could check the worsening cut above Williams’ left eye.

The cut, coupled with the punishment Ward was dishing, was enough for the doctor at ringside to call an end to the one sided affair at 2:55 of the seventh round. Ward was announced the winner by TKO and the ruling was explained by ringside officials that despite the cut being caused by an accidental headbutt, Ward’s punches worsened the cut which prompted the TKO ruling.

With the victory, Ward bettered his record to 15-0 while scoring his 10th stoppage. Williams’ dismal outing earned him his second consecutive loss of 2008, and his record suffered, dropping to 29-4-1 (16).

Afterward, Ward and his team were all smiles. Thrilled with his shutdown performance, the super middleweight contender expressed that he was ready to move to the next level. His promoter Dan Goosen and trainer Virgil Hunter were equally impressed. Goosen said that he would like to get Ward back in the ring against a world class opponent by May or June.

While Ward had the full support of the 4,580 in attendance in San Jose, the house was divided for the semi-main event as matchmakers pitted a pair of highly touted, popular and undefeated Bay Area prospects against one another when Francisco “Chia” Santana squared off with Karim “Hard Hitta” Mayfield in a six round junior middleweight bout.

Mayfield, fighting out of San Francisco, opened up an early lead on Santana as he kept his opponent out of rhythm. Stalking from the outside, Santana was unable to find his range against Mayfield in the early going. Mayfield continuously scored with right hands from the outside that connected over the top as Santana tried to get within range. With his crouched style, the taller Santana was smothered anytime he tried to do work against the more straight up Mayfield.

After being unable to catch Mayfield and score efficiently for the first three rounds, Santana’s fortunes took a turn halfway through the fourth when he connected with a thudding right hand that drained the legs of Mayfield.

With Mayfield out on his feet, Santana pressed his challenger against the ropes and got him to the canvas, but it was ruled questionably as a slip after time had already expired in the round.

“Chia” continued his onslaught in the fifth, scoring with the left hook at will, but once again, was unable to floor Mayfield, which would prove costly.

To the amazement of those in the arena, Mayfield entered the sixth and final round with a look of refreshment, finally over the scare that he suffered in the rounds prior. The “Hard Hitta” once again worked in right hands from the outside. With the crowd echoing chants of “Chia” and “Mayfield”, the two combatants exchanged excitingly on the inside until the final bell, much to the delight of all of those in attendance.

When the scorecards were announced, the judges awarded Mayfield a split decision, favoring his busy work in the opening rounds and final stanza, giving the fighter his biggest win in his young career. Both men received cheers and calls for a rematch began as quickly as the final bell sounded. Scores were 58-56 twice for Mayfield and 58-56 for Santana.

Mayfield improves to 6-0-1 (5) while Santana drops to 8-1 (4).

In an important women’s boxing bout, Watsonville, CA native and WBC Female Minimumweight Champion Carina Moreno dazzled fans, reporters and judges with her quick footwork and precision punching as she outpointed Mayela Perez in a non-title contest to extend her winning streak to nine bouts.

Moreno opened up the fight with jabs and used her fast feet to space her punches perfectly. Coupled with her movement, the uppercut proved to be her most effective weapon in the early going, laying traps and inviting Perez inside only to wallop her underneath with the punch as Perez moved forward.

The fight was never close, and the 2007 Ring Magazine Female Fighter of the Year notched a unanimous decision victory, scoring 40-36 on all cards.

However, that was only the first of her winnings in the night. Later in the evening, she won the “You Be The Judge” contest, where the fans choose, by way of applause, who their favorite undercard boxer of the evening was.

Impressed with her speed and pure boxing ability, fans chose Carina Moreno as their winner. As presented by legendary trainer Angelo Dundee, honorary guest of the evening, Moreno was rewarded with a trophy and $500 in bonus winnings.

Moreno sees her record to 17-1 (5) while Perez falls to 7-6-1 (6).

In the opening contest of the night’s proceedings, Bakersfield product Mike Dallas Jr unanimously decisioned willful challenger Alejandro Balladares, both
of whom were making their pro debuts in a welterweight contest.

Dallas, coming off a 115-12 amateur record, worked in combinations to take care of business against the determined yet overmatched Balladares. Able to slip and counter, Dallas punished Balladares, who was never able to mount any sort of effective offensive attack despite charging forward all night long.

Dallas’ best moment in the fight came at the opening of the third round, when a lead left hook sent Balladares stumbling backwards into the ropes, possibly preventing a knockdown. Clearly ahead, Dallas looked to have a little fun later in the round, laying against the ropes and avoiding a string of punches from his challenger before casually jogging to the other side of the ring in a show of clear dominance. Dallas just proved to be too elusive and too sharp with his punches.

Scores were 40-36 on all cards for Dallas Jr, who scored a victory in his pro debut while Balladares dropped to 0-1. Interestingly, Angelo Dundee worked the corner of Dallas Jr.

Fellow US Boxing member, junior featherweight Rico Ramos, repeated Dallas’ success in his bout versus Sammy Yniguez of Oak Hills, CA. A runner up at the 2007 US National Amateur Championships, Ramos displayed dazzling speed while working with short punches and blistering combos to rack up a unanimous decision victory in his debut.

Ramos worked the fight from the center of the ring to the corners, where he did the bulk of his damage. With his opponent Yniguez trapped, Ramos was able to score with barrages of uppercuts and hooks to damage his opponent.

Working both to the body and to the head, Ramos’ short punches and lightning speed proved enough to win over the judges and the fans in attendance, winning his pro debut 40-36 on all cards while Yniguez fell to 2-2-1 (0).

Welterweight Eric Garcia of Salinas, CA left disappointed after his first professional contest.

Showing a good jab and a balanced stance, Garcia was able to take the first couple rounds of his contest with Marlo Cortez by keeping his challenger at the end of his jab and steering clear of the wild swinging Cortez.

However, Cortez began to press more aggressively in the third round and relentlessly began charging forward with wild shots. While Garcia landed the cleaner blows, Cortez’ aggressiveness was enough to win him rounds in the judges’ eyes and the fight was declared a majority draw. Scores were 38-38 twice and 39-37 for Garcia, who now stands at 2-4-2 (1).