20.08.07 – By Chris Williams: Former heavyweight contender Jeremy Williams (42-5-1, 35 KOs), now fighting as a cruiserweight, struggled in winning a eight-round split decision over Gary Gomez (18-9-1, 7 KOs) on Saturday night at the South Town Exhibition Center, in Sandy, Utah. The final judges’ scores were 78-75, 75-77 and 77-75.
Williams, now 35-years old, was fighting for the first time in two and half years and he looked rusty, slow and weak compared to his previous form. His defense was also porous, as he showed little ability to defend against punches. More alarming than his lack of speed, was his complete absence of power, which was nonexistent for the entire bout with Gomez.
In fact, Gomez, 32, a fighter not known for having any power, appeared to be the much harder puncher of the two. Not a good sign for Williams, whom has stated that his goal is to become a cruiserweight champion at some point in the future.
In the first round, Williams came out jabbing and moving on the outside. His ring movement looked good, but his punches appeared, as mentioned previously, painfully slow and weak. For his part, Gomez, looking rather chunky around the middle, landed several excellent left hooks and right hands during the round. However, Williams appeared to win the round due to his superior workrate.
In the second round, Gomez opened up with a series of right hands that connected clean and snapped Williams’ head back each time. Williams, for his part, did a lot of clinching. The few punches he did attempt in the round were mostly jabs and slow right hands. None had any effect on Gomez, naturally.
In the third round, Williams continued to do a lot of clinching, while still throwing mostly jabs. I was beginning to wonder if he had injured his right hand, since he hadn’t used it much in the round, when he landed a couple near the end of the round. Again, no power was on the punches, although it appeared Williams was putting everything he had behind them. As in the two previous rounds, Gomez landed the much harder shots in the round.
In rounds four through six, Williams moved a lot, throwing punches on his toes and trying to avoid Gomez’s big shots. There continued to be a lot of clinches, mostly initiated by Williams. In the fourth, Williams finally appeared to have warmed up properly, and threw a few decent right hands, but with nothing approaching the power he had earlier in his career. During these rounds, Gomez was far too economical with his punches, and was outworked by Williams. At the end of the 5th round, both fighters continued fighting several seconds after the bell, though nothing substantial was landed by either fighter. The sixth round was very close with both fighters doing very little. However, Gomez appeared to win the round based on his much harder shots landed.
In rounds seven and eight, Williams looked tired, and took a lot of right hands from Gomez. He spent a good deal of the rounds fighting on his toes, staying on the outside. However, it didn’t help because Gomez proved to be excellent at cutting off the ring and hitting a moving target. Besides this, the constant movement had an effect on William’ already weak punches by making them little more than slaps. Gomez easliy won the last two rounds of the fight on my scorecard.
Overall, it was a poor performance for Williams, who looked like he had been out of boxing for 10-years, not the two and a half. Not sure if it was the weight loss he had to undergo to drop from his former bulked up weight of 220 lbs to make the 200 lb cruiserweight limit, or if he just aged badly in the years he was away from boxing. In any event, if he’s unable to regain his power soon, his chances over ever becoming a cruiserweight champion are slim and none in my perspective. Gomez, on the other hand, appears to be the fighter with the better potential of the two. However, he’s going to have to lose some weight and reduce the fat around his midsection, because I believe it hindered him in many of the close rounds.