The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Opportunity knocks
Thanks to COVID-19, Williams gets his title shot
Nothing is as unpredictable as boxing. Except maybe COVID-19. Sure enough, the unpredictable happened in Showtime’s return to the sport and it has given New Haven’s Tramaine Williams, “The Mighty Midget” with mighty dreams, the opportunity for the world championship belt he has long coveted.
“They can’t run now,” the undefeated left-hander had said Wednesday afternoon. “They cannot run. I win and it’s a title shot for sure.”
Williams was talking about his scheduled 12round WBA super bantamweight title eliminator against Ra’eese Aleem, the co-main event on Showtime at 9 p.m. Saturday from Mohegan Sun.
“I was training in Houston when Connecticut spiked,” Williams said. “I came up here to train and Houston spiked. So I’ve been running from corona the whole time.”
Corona caught Stephen Fulton Jr.
Suddenly, it is Williams who will face Angelo Leo for the vacant WBO junior featherweight world championship in the main event Saturday night.
“This is bittersweet,” Williams said Thursday. “Fulton has been preparing for eight weeks for a world title, gearing up his whole life and didn’t get the opportunity. My heart goes
out to him.
“It’s sweet on my end. I get to fight for something I’ve wanted to do my whole life.”
Fulton, who is from Philadelphia, and his team had been tested six times between June 25 and July 23. All the results had been negative. Upon arrival in Connecticut, they were tested with the Mohegan Tribe Department of Athletic Regulation on Tuesday and quarantined awaiting results. It would be bad news Wednesday for Fulton.
“Opportunities come far and few between,” Williams said, “but when they come knocking you’ve got to open the door. Be ready to take the risk. Jump in face first.”
Every fighter has a timetable for when he expects to fight for a world title. Before he got news of Fulton, the 27-year-old Williams was asked when he figured his time would come.
“When I was 23,” The Mighty Midget said.
Yeah, he has wanted it a long time.
Twenty-four hours earlier, Williams was talking about potential title shots. Against the Leo-Fulton winner. Or WBA champion Brandon Figueroa. Or IBF champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev.
“I’ve been ready for all of these guys,” he said. “I should already have been in the position that Fulton and Leo are at right now … We can do it next month. For real.”
Now he’ll do it. For real. Saturday night.
“I’ve been preparing for this since I was 19-years old,” Williams said. “So the last 24 hours is nothing compared to that.
“About a year ago, I had the top five, top 10 fighters on notice in my weight class. So I always pay attention, had my eye on all of them for a year and some
change. This isn’t random.”
For those unfamiliar with boxing’s alphabet soup, there are four major sanctioning bodies: WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO. Also, the 122-pound class, depending on the organization, is called super bantamweight or junior featherweight.
Fulton (18-0, eight knockouts) is ranked No. 1 by the WBO. No. 2. Leo (19-0, nine knockouts) is looking to become the first world champion from Albuquerque, New Mexico, since Johnny Tapia. Williams, sixth in the WBO rankings, is 19-0 with six KOs. Fulton and Leo were supposed to fight for the vacant WBO crown that Emanuel Navarrete relinquished to move up to featherweight.
“I think this is the right time for me as far as maturity,” Williams said. “I never understood when people said, ‘I feel mature, I feel like a man.’ I didn’t understand it because I had never felt it. I feel it now. I feel it in my body, my thinking, my life.”
This is a good thing because Tramaine Williams has known his share of trouble.
There never was a question of his talent, his quickness. Some of his choices? That was another matter. In January 2014, a few days before he was scheduled to fight at Madison Square Garden, he was asleep at his grandmother’s when police raided the home. Drugs and a semiautomatic pistol were found. He pleaded guilty to possession of an assault weapon and narcotics and was sentenced to 21⁄2years. He served about a year between Cheshire Correctional Institution and a halfway house.
Less than a week after a unanimous decision over Pedro Antonio Rodriguez in Philadelphia in March 2018, he was found in violation of probation for failure to report to his program. He got a harsh 18 months, although he was released after six.
Williams won four bouts in rapid order upon his return to the ring. February 2019, April, June; finally July 27, 2019, over Yenifel Vicente for the WBO NABO super bantam title. His preparations for another fight were cut short by COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’ve had a year layoff twice,” said Williams, who had a highly successful amateur career. “I’ve been boxing 18 years. I look at it as a break, not a layoff. My body and my mind needed a little break.”
And now, as Showtime Sports president Stephen Espinoza said, Williams has the biggest opportunity of his career.
Leo had been told Fulton tested positive for COVID-19 after breakfast Wednesday, but didn’t find out his replacement would be Williams until later in the day.
“I watched some film of him last year; he’s a good fighter, a slick fighter,” Leo said. “Except for the fact he is a southpaw, his style is somewhat similar to Fulton. He does like to fight on the inside a little more. I’m in the best shape of my life. Whatever it takes to get the W.”
Asked what kind of picture he wanted to paint for the fans Saturday night, Leo answered “Definitely, a Picasso.”
Not sure, but here’s one bet Tramaine Williams is more interested in pugilism than cubism.
Leo said he’d definitely give Fulton a chance for the title if he wins. Fulton told the Philadelphia Inquirer the winner has to fight him.
“Y’all fighting to see who is going to face the king,” Fulton told the Inquirer. “That’s all it really is.”
Boxing. You got to love the modesty.
Marcus Bates, whose only loss was to Aleem in an eight-round unanimous decision, has moved into Williams’ spot for what Aleem is calling a “grudge match.” Bates said he believed his water was tainted
by one of Aleem’s crew during the last fight two years ago. Aleem calls it “B.S.”
Boxing. You got to love the intrigue.
“Leo is a sharper fighter than Aleem,” Williams said. “He’s in shape. He throws decent body shots. We’ll take that away. He looks like he has had more experience. He has beaten a couple of decent fighters. It won’t be a cakewalk. But I’m ready for him.”
Williams had said Aleem’s style is a little awkward, that he comes from different angles, different places. He also said Aleem is a cleaner fighter than Vicente, who came in swinging for the fences and looking to land a lucky shot. Still, Williams had said he planned to take Aleem into the “deep water” in the third round and see how he handled it.
“Same mindset,” Williams said about Leo. “Same everything.”
Asked what that meant, he smiled and said, “You just have to tune in Saturday night.”
There will be no crowd. Williams said no problem, he’ll adapt. You may even hear him do some talking in the ring.
“With the virus, the biggest difference this time was limiting sparring partners in training,” said Williams, who did want to thank area fighters William Foster and Felix Parrilla. “You want to be careful who you interact with. We had a few selected guys and made it work. Made sure they practiced social distancing.”
And then Williams delivered the line of the week.
“I’m not really a people person,” he said. “I’m always practicing social distancing. So it wasn’t that big of a deal for me.”
Champion of the world? Now that would be a big deal for The Mighty Midget and New Haven.