Austin, Williams Suffer First Losses

It was the darkest day in Cincinnati sports since the Big Red Machine was disassembled.

Or perhaps since the current Bengals were assembled.

The city’s two boxing stars, Tim Austin, unbeaten and the second-longest current reigning champion, and Ricardo Williams, the 2000 Olympic silver medalist and previously unbeaten in the pros, were both upset Saturday night at the Caesars Palace Pavilion in front of a crowd of approximately 3,100

It would be hard to gauge which was the bigger stunner.

Austin (25-1-1, 22 knockouts) lost his International Boxing Federation bantamweight championship to Rafael Marquez (29-3, 27), the U.S. Boxing Assn. champion and the brother of Juan Manuel, the IBF featherweight titleholder. Marquez, a 4-1 underdog, knocked Austin through the ropes in the eighth and then finished him off with a flurry of punches that caused referee Vic Drakulich to stop the fight at 2:20 of the round.

In the semi-main event, a 10-round nontitle bout, welterweight Williams (8-1, one no-contest) lost a unanimous decision to Juan Valenzuela (16-6), who took the fight on two days’ notice after an eye injury forced out Juan Carlos Rubio, the original opponent.

“I am going to go back to the drawing board,” said Austin, whose first step toward a comeback should be to demand that his promoter, Don King, and his manager, Carl King, the promoter’s stepson, give him more work.

He had fought only once in the past 14 months and five times in the last three years. Austin had made the most of his limited opportunities, having successfully defended the title he won from Mbulelo Botile in 1997 nine times. Only middleweight Bernard Hopkins has held a title in a single weight division longer.

But it is difficult to stay sharp with such infrequent trips into the ring and Austin showed the effects at times Saturday night.

Still, Austin was ahead on all three scorecards heading into the eighth round. And he appeared to shake Marquez up early in that round.

“Austin did hurt me in the opening rounds with body shots,” Marquez conceded. “I got it together and got my second wind and my corner was telling me to go for it.”

Marquez came back with a roundhouse left in the eighth that proved to be the beginning of the end for Austin. Another left and a straight right put Austin on his rear end on the apron, only his dangling legs still inside the ropes.

Somehow, Austin pulled himself back into the ring but not back into the fight. Marquez continued the barrage until Drakulich ended it.

There were no odds posted for the semi-main event. On the bout sheet, Williams was listed as “Undefeated Olympic silver medalist,” Valenzuela merely as “Young Mexican competitor.”

A competitor he was, indeed.

Valenzuela, whose previous career highlight was a first-round TKO of Julio Diaz last year, came after Williams early and never let up.

Judge Carol Castellano had Valenzuela winning, 98-92, while fellow judges Duane Ford and Dalby Shirley scored it 97-93.

In a preliminary fight, Jose Victor Burgos (40-13-2, 21 knockouts) won the IBF junior-flyweight championship by stopping a bloodied Alex Sanchez (29-3-1) at 1:50 of the 12th and final round.