Williams suffers first defeat in Vegas

Well before his Friday night bout at the Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas, West Haven’s Jimmy “Quiet Storm” Williams knew he was taking a risk.

“I had to go through a lotta changes. I had to leave a trainer that helped my career. I had to change my whole circle up to get to this point,” Williams said.

Sometimes a risk pays off and sometimes it doesn’t. There’s no better place to learn that lesson than Las Vegas.

On the campus of the University of Nevada Las Vegas, the risk didn’t pay off as Williams’ suffered the first loss of his professional boxing career. As the cofeature on a card put together by Roy Jones Jr. Promotions and shown on beIN Sports, the fight was the biggest test the 31-year old former Southern Connecticut State University football player had faced in his boxing career.

Across eight rounds of heavy back-and-forth action, Houston’s Marquis Taylor was able to hold Williams at a distance with his long left jab, preventing Williams from getting inside and throwing the right hand he has used to devastating effect in previous fights.

The taller Taylor was able to keep space between the two fighters and pepper Williams with punches in the early rounds. By the fourth round, Williams started to hit Taylor with body shots, and in the later rounds Williams jab finally began to connect, but it wasn’t enough to cover the lost ground of the early rounds.

“I was trying to hard for certain things that weren’t there,” Williams said.

The judges called the fight for Taylor in a unanimous decision (79-73, 79-73, 8072). Speaking the morning after the fight, Williams (14-1-1) put the loss in perspective. “I woke up and understood why I needed this loss,” he said, explaining that the loss relieves the pressure of having an undefeated record. “You start fighting for your record, not for who you are,” Williams said.

He also said that a boxing loss is insignificant, compared to the trials he has faced in the past. The Plainfield, New Jersey native’s mother’s 2007 murder remains unsolved.

Williams, who is signed to Providence, Rhode Island-based CES Promotions, has been in Las Vegas since mid-March, training at the Mayweather Boxing Club under the tutelage of Eddie Mustafa Muhammad. Muhammad is a former world champion based at the Mayweather gym who once sparred with Muhammad Ali and has formerly trained New Haven’s Chad Dawson.

Williams, a West Haven schools truancy officer, flew back home to West Haven on Saturday night, where he said he would relax for a while and plan his next move. The Quiet Storm will have his hands full, as Williams wife Christina gave birth to twin boys back in September 2017.