“Knockout” results from Foxwoods

By Terry Sutton

(Aug. 16 - Mashantucket) It was the final fight of the reality show Knockout’s second season. Despite a disappointing crowd of less than a thousand people at the Foxwoods Resort and Casino, fans in attendance were able to see three exciting boxing matches including one involving a former champion widely considered one of the sport’s greatest. 

The first fight saw Hartford, CT’s own Michael Oliver take his 26-4-1 record against California’s Jonathan Arellano in a 130 pound, eight-round contest.  Oliver dominated the fight with his quickness winning the first three rounds on all the judge’s cards.  The fourth round would see Arellano bully Oliver and knock him to the canvas with a second left in the fourth round.  Despite getting back up for the count, the fight was stopped in the beginning of the fifth round when Oliver was not coherent enough to fight.  Arellano was declared the winner and earned the fourth KO of his career.

The second fight saw the finale of “Knockout” as Minnesota’s Jason Litzau took on Hylon Williams of Houston, Texas in an eight round fight at 135 pounds.  Litzau was the man with a longer range and more firepower.  He had 22 knockout victories to go with his 29-3 record.  Williams was the quicker fighter who boasted a record of 16-1. 

The fight saw much back and forth action with neither man hurting the other.  Williams would get a cut near his eye in the seventh but would even the score when he bloodied the nose of Litzau in the final round.  The Judges’ decision in the end would elicit boos from the audience who
were unsatisfied with the scores.  The bout was a draw with 77-75 for Williams, 76-76 for both men, and 79 to 73 for Litzau. 

The main event would see West Virginia’s own Eric Watkins (12-9-2 record) step in a few day’s notice to take on Roy Jones Jr.  While most in the audience expected the former multi-weight class world champion to easily dispatch Watkins, he had other plans.  While Jones dominated the first five rounds, he did not go unscathed.  While Jones attacked Watkins with several hard body shots, Watkins fired back with several head shots of his own.  Jones was never in any trouble during the fight and with one second left in the sixth round he dropped Watkins with a left shot to the head.  It was too much for Watkins who lay on the canvas barely conscious for over a minute.  It was another win for Jones who improved his record to 61 and 8.

Knockout is aired on Nuvo TV and Fuse.