Saturday, February 12, 2000
Williams predicting easy win in Olympic Trials
BY JOHN ERARDI
The Cincinnati Enquirer
TAMPA, Fla. — Ricardo Williams Jr., who will fight Jose Celaya today in the championship round of the 139-pound weight class at the U.S. Olympic Boxing Trials, is predicting a repeat of the lopsided 22-5 victory he scored over Celaya in a tournament last year.
“I may even knock him out,” Williams, 18, the nation's top-ranked 139-pound amateur, said Friday.
Six featured championship bouts from the trials will be televised nationally from 2-4 p.m. today (Channels 5, 22). The winners of those bouts will advance to the trials' box-offs in Connecticut at the end of this month, where the trials' silver medalists must beat the champions twice to gain spots on the U.S. Olympic team.
Officials of USA Boxing said Williams' bout probably will start at about 2:45 p.m.
“I've already had two tough bouts here against Corey Bernard and Demetrius Hopkins,” said Williams, a graduate of Taft High School. “They tested me like I've never been tested before (in a U.S. tournament). Celaya is an awkward guy for me to fight — he switches from southpaw to right-handed, but I've trained against right-handers and left-handers in the gym, and I don't expect that to be any problem.”
Williams, who likes to provide a little showmanship in his bouts, predicted he may even do a little dancing in the fight today. “As long as I'm ahead in the bout, and I know I'm ahead,” he said.
Perhaps some extra motivation for Williams is that his buddy, Dante Craig, was defeated Friday night in the championship of the 147-pound class by Larry Mosely of Los Angeles.
“Dante will bounce back,” Williams said. “I'm not going to give Celaya a chance to get ahead of me like happened to Dante, because I'm going to come out right away on Celaya. I'm going to take it to him.”
Williams isn't letting himself think ahead.
“I'm not thinking about Connecticut, and I'm not thinking about the Olympic team. I just want to take care of business (today), because that's the way you have to approach these fights. You look past somebody, and you can get burned.”
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