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Clarence Tillman and Sonny Bill Williams. - Source: Fairfax
Well, well, well. Noone expected that, Williams wins
the NZPBA Heavyweight Belt without taking a punch. In
fact he probably suffered more damage at the weigh-in scrap
yesterday than he did in the ring. Incredible.
Tillman had supposedly put $1000 dollars on himself to knock
Williams out. Wow, rough night.
Williams thanks his Chiefs teammates, especially Liam Messam, who
joins him in the ring. I guess Williams can probably play this
weekend. I would bet he has had evening jogs more taxing than that
fight.
That raps up our rather short live coverage of tonight's
fight.
Round 1
Tentative start from both fighters. But Williams explodes
mid-round. Tillman never had his gloves up, and Williams connects
with a massive left hook. Tillman stumbles around the ring,
clinging to the ropes and swinging wild punches at Williams. He is
not even close. Williams' salvo continues, and he connects with two
straights and a hook before the referee intervenes and stops the
fight!
Williams wins in the first round by technical
KO.
***
And there's the bell and we're off!
Sonny Bill walks out to a screaming crowd, and takes off his
jacket. Wipe the drool off your blouses ladies.
And here's Tillman. Comes out rapping along to Rick Ross'
Usual
Suspects. Looks pumped, but the pink towel on his head kind of
offsets the macho effect.
***
Welcome to tvnz.co.nz's round-by-round coverage of Sonny Bill
Williams v Clarence Tillman at the Claudelands Arena in
Hamilton.
The undercard has been ... errr... a little
underwhelming. Two of the bouts didn't last till the end of
round one, and the fighting was decidedly ordinary.
Let's hope the 'Battle for the Belt' is an improvement.
The fight represents a step up in the class of opponents for
Williams, but even that is slightly contentious.
Tillman has six centimetres and 20.5 kgs on his opponent, but that
extra heft would be of more use in a sumo wrestling ring than a
boxing fight... if you know what I mean.
The Williams camp supposedly chose Tillman as an opponent because
he had already been training for another fight. Wonder what he
looked like before he started "training."
Ross Taylor is at the fight, being interviewed by
Sky ,
but rules out getting in the ring in the near future. Why would you
go through weeks of rigorous training and get punched around,
when you can play eight-weeeks of domestic cricket in India for
$1.5 million? Smart kid that Rossco.
Tana Umaga is also there supporting Sonny Bill Williams. He says
he's not a boxing connossieur but predicts Sonny Bill will win on
points.
The main event is about to start, but first they
are auctioning SBW's ripped shirt from the Tonga World Cup
match... it sells for $6500, witht he proceeds going to
Canteen.
Boxers are going through their final preparations now. Tillman
looking loose and mobile, Williams tense and focussed.
