|
This bout for the IBA Women's Bantamweight Championship took place at the
Soaring Eagle Casino, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan on January 19th, 2001 between
Canadian Kathy Williams of Thunder Bay, Ontario, and Puerto Rican Ada Valez,
who fights and trains out of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
The bout was unusual because both women are southpaws. One has to give
Kathy Williams the prefight edge with more experience and a proven ability
to go ten rounds.
The first round was a feeling out round with Ms. Williams trying to establish
her two-inch height and four-inch reach superiority against Ms. Velez. Right from
the start, Kathy had trouble establishing her jab. At first, Ada looked
amateurish with leaping and looping overhand rights and lefts, but they
were
landing. The smaller Latina girl won the round much to Kathy's amazement.
The second had to be Kathy's best round of the fight, because she had some
snap to her jab. I had her winning the third round too, but Ada continued to
throw and land looping and scoring overhand lefts, and was now landing some
body punches as well.
In the fourth, Ada started working over Kathy's ribs with wide left and right
hooks and an occasional looping lefts to the face. By the end of the round
Kathy's corner was using the Enswell to ice down Kathy's right eye.
The pattern continues in the fifth and sixth rounds, with Kathy dropping her
hands more and more to protect the body, giving Ada more head hunting room.
By now both girls were having Enswell applied to their faces.
By the seventh, I thought Kathy was ready to turn things around as she was
used to longer fights. Velez was breathing more heavily and Kathy's jab was
more consistent. But just as you thought she had won the round, Ada would
reverse things by scoring heavily to the body with the right and left hooks,
stealing the round.
The seventh and eight rounds
were pretty much the same: Kathy would begin the round well, but Ada would rally in the last 30 seconds or so with heavy punches to Kathy's ribs and occasionally to the head as well. Kathy looked tired, while Ada looked confident. Ada would be standing and rush out at the bell for each round while Kathy
remained seated as long as possible.
The ninth round could have gone either way with Kathy landing many more
punches but Ada landing the heavier ones. Kathy now knew she would need a
knockout to win and really gave her all in the tenth round, but it was too
little too late. She never fully established her jab, and at the bell the
little Latina Bulldog was running all around the ring, arms in the air,
confident she had won.
My personal score card agreed with Judge Ron Cunningham at 97-93 for Velez.
I was amazed by judges Monty Oswald's
99-91 and judge Rosemary Grable's 100-90 scores. I knew that Ms. Velez had
scored an upset, but these scores against Kathy Williams were a humiliation.
Ada Velez won the title and raised her record to 7-0 (4 KO's). Kathy
Williams's loss lowered her record to 12-3 (4 KO's). |
