Acting on the advice of the ringside physician, referee Jon Schorle stops the contest before the start of round 9. Paul Williams is the new WBO light middleweight champion!
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Round 8: William’s corner could not stop the flow of blood. PW lands a right. VP fires back and lands. PW rips another left driving VP to the ropes. VP swings wildly and misses. PW doubles up on the hook. VP is on tired legs. VP lands a right flush on the face, but there isn’t much on the punch. PW continues the assault to the body. Williams 10-9.
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Round 7: VP lands a lunging left. The men tangle and both go down; no knockdown. PW lands a straight left. Both men are breathing heavy and through their mouths. PW rips a hook to the body. VP looks dazed but fires back off the ropes. The blood is flowing from the face of PW. A vicious exchange drives VP back to the ropes. Referee Schorle moves in for a look. Williams 10-9.
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Round 6: PW lands a double jab. He drives VP into the corner and pummels the smaller man. VP works off the ropes but can not back up the charging Williams. A PW straight left lands. It’s chippy in tight where both men are hitting and holding. A chopping left hand stuns VP. VP lands a left but PW answers at the bell. Williams 10-9.
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Round 5: VP is fighting in spurts; moving in and out. PW pushes forward, pressing the action. VP lands a chopping right and a lead left. The blood continues to flow from PW. PW lands some hooks to the body. VP lands a short hook inside. VP rips a hook to the body. PW lands one of his own. VP is game and has his best round since the 2nd. Phillips 10-9.
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Round 4: PW opens where he left off - with hooks to the body. PW works in behind a lazy jab and lands a punch that knocks VP off balance. Schorle jumps in but Phillips did not go down. They’re exchanging blows in the center of the ring with the heavy handed PW doing most of the damage. A PW right connects cleanly. VP throws a wild hook and slips. No knockdown. Williams 10-9.
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Round 3: PW traps VP against the ropes and rips shots to the body. The hooks are damaging. VP is not backing down - instead he stands and trades with the bigger man. The Williams cut is open and flowing. PW lands a left. VP lands an uppercut inside. PW lands a hook to the body; VP lands a hook upstairs. PW drives VP to the ropes and digs hooks to the body. Referee Schorle asks the doctor to look at the cut. The fight resumes. Williams 10-9.
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Round 2: VP circles right and lands a right hook. Williams digs a hook to the body. VP dips down to make PW miss. The blood is flowing freely from PW. The men exchange hooks. VP lands a clean left upstairs. VP is lunging in and catching PW with clean rights and lefts. They exchange from the 10 second bell and the crowd goes crazy. Phillips 10-9
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Round 1: Williams snaps a jab. Phillips is on the move, staying outside the long reach of Williams. Phillips lands a right. Williams pumps the jab. VP is staying out of harms way. The men clash heads. PW lands a left. PW is cut at the right eye. VP lands a left. Close round. Williams 10-9.
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Cris Arreola wins by devastating KO at :13 seconds of the third round.
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Round 3: Arreola drives Walker back with a big right and then drops him for the final time of the fight. A perfect left hook finished the fight. Referee Jack Reiss waives off the contest and declares Cris Arreola the winner!!!
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Round 2: Big fists are flying in the middle of the ring. A straight right drops Arreola! Arreola is up but in trouble. Walker lands a hook; Arreola comes back with two of his own. Walker’s mouthpiece goes flying. Arreola lands a huge right and the crowd erupts. Walker’s on unsteady legs. Arreola lands a right and down goes Walker! Arreola pounces on Walker and down he goes for the second time. The men exchange blows to the bell! Arreola 10-8.
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Round 1: Walker lands first. They’re trading blows. Walker lands a heavy left. Arreola is fighting with his back against the ropes. CA shakes his head no, but has not moved off the ropes. A Walker right tags Arreola and Arreola hangs on. They’re in the middle of the ring now where Walker works behind a pawing jab. Walker shoots a double jab and a counter right. Walker lands a body shot. Arreola lands a hook upstairs. Walker 10-9.
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Update: 2008 U.S. Olympian Shawn Estrada stopped Lawrence Jones (2-2-1) at 1:00 of the first round to win his professional debut. Estrada, from Los Angeles, hurt Jones with a right hand driving him into the corner. Jones went down under a barrage of punches prompting referee Wayne Hedgepeth to stop the bout.
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Paul Williams is a monster of a welterweight. But it appears he’s through campaigning at 147 and will continue his quest against the big boys. Or should I say men. Verno Phillips, the IBF light middleweight champion, will turn 39 the night of the fight. With 54 professional fights under his belt Phillips has the ring know-how to neutralize his opponents. Not against Williams, you say? Maybe not, but then again many thought Bernard Hopkins had little chance against Kelly Pavlik.

Paul Williams burst onto the scene in 2007 with a unanimous decision upset of then WBO welterweight champion Antonio Margarito. Williams kept the hard-charging champion at bay for 12 rounds with a bone jarring jab. And just when he began drawing comparisons to the great Thomas Hearns, Williams turned in an uninspired performance against a determined Carlos Quintana. Williams offered no excuses for the setback; he simply went back to work. In the 2008 rematch, Williams showed Hearns-like power by stopping Quintana inside one round. At 6’1” it appears that 147 lbs is no longer a possibility for Williams. His most recent fight against Andy Kolle was contested at 160 lbs.

Verno Phillips burst onto the scene 15 years ago, in 1993, when he defeated Lupe Aquino for the vacant WBO light middleweight title. Yes, the same Lupe Aquino who fought Marlon Starling and Davey Moore and Donald Curry and Milt McCrory and Pipino Cuevas in the decade of the ’80s. Phillips defended the title four times before losing the belt in 1995. Nearly a decade passed before Phillips received another shot at a major strap. In 2004 Phillips defeated Carlos Bojorquez to win the IBF light middleweight title. Though Phillips lost the title in his next outing he became a three-time champion when Phillips defeated Cory Spinks to regain the IBF belt.

In an intriguing clash of heavyweight hopefuls, Chris “The Nightmare” Arreola faces Travis “Freight Train” Walker in the most meaningful fight of their young careers. On the line is a future title shot as the fight is an IBF heavyweight title eliminator. Arreola, of Riverside, CA, is 25-0 with 22 KOs. He is currently ranked #2 by the WBC and #4 by the IBF and WBO. A two-fisted brawler, Arreola has stopped his last 12 opponents in succession. Travis Walker, fighting out of Houston, TX, is 28-1-1 with 22 KOs. Walker is ranked as high as #6 by the WBO and is rated in the top 15 by the other sanctioning bodies. His only loss came late last year against TJ Wilson when he was stopped in the first round. But the “Freight Train” got back on track when he avenged the loss against Wilson with a 2nd round stoppage of his own.

TSS faithful, on Saturday, November 29, return here for live, round by round coverage of the Paul Williams v. Verno Phillips interim WBO light middleweight championship fight and the Chris Arreola v. Travis Walker IBF heavyweight title eliminator. The action begins at 10 pm ET / 7 pm PT from the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, CA.