Photo Courtesy of SnapLocally.com
AND OUR MINNESOTA STATE SUPER MIDDLEWEIGHT CHAMPION IS…. A DRAW!
By: Laura Zink
Phil Williams
I can’t say I was completely shocked, but then again…I couldn’t see everything. The St. Paul Armory was so packed! So many people were standing up and blocking the view; so many impromptu seats were moved up front congesting the space by the ring; so many photographers crowded in at ringside, and well, then there was the neutral corner ringpost obstructing the center of the ring from the press table…
So I couldn’t have called it even if I wanted to. At our press table, we were divided as to who won, scores ranging across eerily large margins. At least the fans seemed to have made up their mind – whomever they came for, that guy OBVIOUSLY won.
Truax outboxed Williams.
Williams had Truax hurt.
Truax was faster than Williams.
Williams bloodied Truax’s nose.
Williams didn’t rally until the last round.
Truax would have been knocked out if it weren’t for the bell.
Truax (left) Williams (right)
It really depended who you talked to, but as the fans and the fighters waited for the score to be called, all things appeared to be true at the same time. In the ring, Williams walked around facing the crowd with his arms raised in victory. And once Truax noticed Williams was parading around the ring, he jumped on the ropes in his own corner to encourage the primarily Truax crowd that he, Truax, was indeed the winner. From where I sat, I guess it just a matter of perspective…and a sincere need to see replay footage from a better angle.
Yet, as the judges poured just a little too long over their scorecards, and the fans, now all on their feet, awaited the decision, I looked out at the 2,000 plus agitated people in attendance and thought…
I hope there isn’t a riot.
But when the announcer took the microphone and read the scores: 97-94 Truax, 96-94 Williams, 95-95… the crowd, in mutual and utter outrage, forgot about each other and ran over to their fighters to tell them that they won.
Williams was decidedly pissed. He yelled at everyone in the ring while throwing up his arms in outrage. And to everyone who had the guts to try and hold him back, Williams yelled over their shoulders to all who were watching that he had been robbed. Truax, standing in his corner at the other end of the ring with his hands on his hips, looked still, somewhat distant, and clearly frustrated.
It was clear that both fighters had the sincere belief that they had taken the victory. First, both men felt that they had used superior boxing to beat each other in the early rounds.
Caleb Truax, Courtesy SnapLocally.com
“I don’t think it was a tough fight,” Truax said. “I boxed him the whole fight. I controlled the whole fight. He didn’t land a punch besides his jab until the last round. I thought I won the fight going away.”
“I mean, he lost the fight,” Williams said. “What the heck did he do to get 97-94? Where did that come from? Don’t you got to hit somebody? I mean, don’t punches tell of my fight? Them is 10 ounce gloves. Man, the man couldn’t get nothing off at all. My movement was too good for him. I was in shape. I was keeping that jab out there. Every time he would get in with that jab I would counter – BOOM – and he couldn’t get in, at all. He was desperate trying to get into the body. He couldn’t even get nothing in. I won the fight clearly, man.”
Similarly, both fighters had a firm resolution as to what the last round should mean to the judges.
“I hope they didn’t sway their decision on the last round because it was one round, and he didn’t even hurt me,” Truax said. “He hit me and caught me off balance, but I wasn’t hurt. I didn’t go to my knees or anything like that.”
“I was controlling him with the jab, movement all the time,” Williams said. “He was scared to come into my power, and you can see why in the 10th round: I had him out. The man was out. The only thing that saved him was that bell. Other than that, he was out of there. He lost the fight.”
And clearly, both fighters had their own understanding as to the significance of the bloody nose Truax got in round 4.
“The bloody nose didn’t really bother me at all,” Truax said. “It bled more than it should have because of my allergies. I have had allergies for the last three or four weeks, so my nose was really dry. My nose doesn’t bother me at all.”
“I hurt the boy early in like the 4th round with the jab, when I chased him back,” Williams said. “He couldn’t do nothing with me. My movement was too good, side-to-side, back, stepping off to the side throwing a punch, boom, I would hit him with the jab. Man, I knew that I was at his show, his promoter his manager and all that. Man, did that boy’s see his nose? Do you see my face? It doesn’t look like I got hit at all. Man, his nose was drippin. Yeah, that man 97-94. That is just unbelievable. It was unbelievable. How do you get 97-94 like this? With your nose leaking and the other fighter over here, I am looking like I am ready to take pictures. You know what I am saying? That is bad. I saw some blood on me.”
Williams stopped and looked down at his trunks and his hand wraps, pointing to spots flecked with red.
“That ain’t my blood. That ain’t my blood. Yeah, that ain’t mine. That’s not my blood.”
But from whatever angle you got to see the fight, be it from the knotted clusters of people standing at ringside or all the way back to the large throngs of drinking and screaming standing-room-only fans who closed in on VIP tables as the rounds carried on, both fighters tested each other with the best of what their arsenal had to offer: Truax using his countering to load up his fast and impressive combinations, and Williams using his jab to set up his power. Perhaps the issue was that neither man, while very present in the battle, completely used their arsenal ALL the way. Yeah, Truax could have thrown more combos, and Williams, he could have started using his power earlier on. But either way, it was a good fight, even if the decision was less than satisfying.
I think that one fan at ringside explained best what we could take from that fight:
Win, lose, or draw…That would be a HELL of a rematch!
Tags: Caleb Truax, Phil Williams
St. Paul, MN (April 6, 2010) - Highly touted super middleweight Caleb “Golden” Truax will meet in-state rival Phil “The Drill” Williams at the St. Paul Armory Friday, April 23, in the main event of Seconds Out Promotions’ “St. Paul Brawl”.
