Highlights
–Prichard Colon used every inch of his 6-foot frame early in the contest, connecting well from the edge of his range and timing counters every time Terrel Williams got in close. But after that early dominance, the fight would take a turn for the bizarre. With Williams flipping the momentum and pressuring Colon in the fifth, Colon connected on a low blow that dropped Williams like a shot. Referee Joe Cooper called it an intentional foul, and deducted two points.
–From that point on, Colon wasn’t the same fighter, and Williams took control of the bout until he was called for an intentional foul himself for punching to the back of the head in the seventh. After taking the full five minutes to recover, Colon seemed to get back into the fight and bounced back to widen his lead the eighth.
–Just as the pendulum appeared to be swinging back in Colon’s direction, Williams came roaring back in the ninth to score two knockdowns. After the bell, Colon’s corner started removing his gloves, saying they thought the ninth round was the 10th and final round. Whether Colon’s corner was legitimately confused or using it as a stall tactic to buy time for their woozy fighter, the Virginia Athletic Commission directed Cooper to call the fight, ruling it a disqualification because Colon couldn’t answer the bell.
Prichard Colon looked like he was ready to cruise to his 17th victory without a loss after five rounds against Terrel Williams in Fairfax, Virginia, on Saturday afternoon. And then what looked like a Sunday drive turned into a roller coaster.
Terrel Williams connects with a left to the head of Prichard Colon during their 147-pound fight Saturday in Fairfax, Virginia. Williams won by disqualification. (Suzanne Teresa/Premier Boxing Champions)
Willaims (15-0, 12 KOs) started putting on the pressure in the fifth, and Colon (16-1, 13 KOs) responded with a vicious low blow that referee Joe Cooper ruled was intentional. Cooper deducted two points from Colon, but it definitely wasn’t the last time Cooper would be have a big say in what ended up being a bizarre fight.
After taking time to recover from the low blow, Williams took over the fight in the middle rounds as Colon grew tentative. But Williams gave that momentum back in the seventh round with a shot to the back of Colon’s head. Now it was Colon’s turn to take a break for being fouled—he took the full five minutes allowed—and it was Williams’ turn to get scolded by Cooper, who ordered a one-point deduction for the illegal punch.
The time off appeared to revitalize Colon, who rebounded with a solid eighth round. The ninth would tell a different story, though, as Williams scored a pair of knockdowns, the second with a crushing body blow that was followed by another shot that landed to the back of the head as Colon was falling.
After the round ended, Colon’s corner started taking off the fighter’s gloves, mistakenly believing the scheduled 10-round bout was over. The Virginia Athletic Commission directed Cooper to end the fight there, though, saying Colon was unable to answer the bell. Officially, the contest was ruled a disqualification.
