Molina bounces back with knockout

Rafael's remarks: Hernandez, 27, of Mexico, lost his version of the 108-pound world title in December 2011 when Kompayak Porpramook knocked him out in the 10th round of a very good fight. Three fights later, Hernandez regained the title when he returned the favor by stopping Thailand's Porpramook in the sixth round in October. Making the first defense of his second title reign, Hernandez got a soft touch in Cabarca, a 27-year-old southpaw from Panama who had never even been in a scheduled 10-round fight before being handpicked for this world title bout.

It was just the sort of mismatch that was expected as Hernandez rolled past Cabarca with ease. Hernandez outclassed his opponent, doing as he pleased for most of the fight, which at least had spurts of decent action. In the opening moments of the 12th round, an accidental clash of heads bloodied the left eye of Hernandez and opened a cut on Cabarca's scalp, but both shook off the cuts.

Rafael's remarks: Perez, 29, of Venezuela, won an interim junior welterweight title in December 2011 with a fourth-round knockout of Fernando Castaneda but then lost in his first defense, a seventh-round technical decision to Pablo Cesar Cano in July. In his first bout since that defeat, Perez returned against Los Angeles-based Forbes, 35, who briefly held a junior lightweight world title in 2003 and 2004 but has since become a journeyman opponent.

Perez is a limited fighter and didn't look great, but he did enough to escape with a majority decision -- one that Forbes disputed. Forbes lost his fourth fight in a row and dropped to 3-9 in his past 12 bouts, but he fought better than most probably expected. Forbes was able to catch Perez with left hands, but Perez was the more aggressive fighter, which undoubtedly helped him with the judges. Forbes blocked a lot of Perez's shots and had a big sixth round as he fought off of the ropes and landed some clean left hooks.

But the heavier-punching (and often wild-swinging) Perez continually marched forward and didn't seem bothered by Forbes' shots. The bigger Perez opened a cut over Forbes' right eye in the final round and closed the fight strong as he connected with a lot of solid shots in the 10th round.

Rafael's remarks: Williams, 25, of Fort Washington, Md., was all over the overmatched Smith (8-2, 6 KOs), of Williamson, Ky., from the outset. Williams is a crowd-pleaser and went after Smith throughout the fight. He had very little coming back at him to worry about. By the third round, Smith's face was busted up and he was bleeding badly from the bridge of his nose when Williams dropped him to a knee with a left hand. Smith was game and tried to fight back, but he was out of his league. Williams put some punches together, drove him to the ropes and unloaded a brutal left uppercut that badly hurt him. Williams landed a couple of more shots, but Smith was already going down from the uppercut. Referee Frank Gentile jumped in to stop the fight at 1 minute, 56 seconds. Williams looks like a prospect to keep an eye on -- at least a guy who is going to be in fan-friendly fights.

Rafael's remarks: Gausha, 25, of Cleveland, was a 2012 U.S. Olympian and is getting his pro career rolling. He turned pro with several of his Olympic teammates in November (although some count Gausha's bouts from his experience in the World Series of Boxing as professional fights) and stormed to a second-round knockout of Dustin Caplinger.

In his second fight, Gausha had an easier time with Schmitz, 23, of St. Joseph, Mo., who was a punching bag with no prayer. Schmitz didn't land a single legitimate punch in the fight as Gausha teed off on him. Gausha was landing all kinds of rights, lefts and uppercuts and had Schmitz pinned in a corner when referee Sam Burgos stepped in to stop the onslaught at 1 minute, 42 seconds. Don't expect to see Gausha or any Olympians in a solid fight for a while. Smashing slow, unskilled opponents in early pro fights is just part of the rite of passage for touted prospects.

Rafael's remarks: Molina, 30, of Covina, Calif., and Williams, 28, of St. Louis -- both good punchers -- came into this solidly matched main event in need of a victory. It figured to be the kind of fight where the first guy to land a really stiff punch would win. And that's what happened, as Molina starched Williams to keep his career relevant.

Molina needed the win badly because in his most recent fight, in September on the Andre Ward-Chad Dawson undercard, he challenged then-lightweight titlist Antonio DeMarco and was wiped out in a 44-second nightmare. Since then, he dropped trainer Joe Goossen and brought trainer of the year Robert Garcia into his corner. In March, Williams, trained by former Kelly Pavlik trainer Jack Loew, lost a rather lopsided decision to Henry Lundy despite scoring a knockdown in the first round. Although Williams won a fight in October, he got dropped and cut in a stay-busy win against a sub-.500 opponent, so he too needed a solid performance.

Both fighters were a bit cautious in the first round before Williams, with his faster hands, landed some decent right hands in the second round and seemed to be getting into a rhythm. But Williams was badly rattled by an accidental head-butt in the third round and was given time by referee Rocky Burke to recover.

In the fourth round, Molina unloaded a hard overhand right that landed high on Williams' head, near his temple. The punch sent Williams reeling into the ropes and down to the mat. He came to rest on his stomach, with the top half of his body outside the ring on the apron. He tried to get up but couldn't beat the count, and Burke stopped it at 2 minutes, 16 seconds. When Williams did get up, he was standing outside the ring on the apron. It was a good return victory for Molina, while Williams will have to seriously assess what he wants to do in the future.

Rafael's remarks: Gonzalez, 28, of Sacramento, who is trained by 2011 trainer of the year Virgil Hunter, won a clear decision but didn't look particularly good or appear to be the top prospect his handlers like to say he is. He did, however, get the job done against Mouton, 34, of Houston, who landed some solid shots but not nearly enough of them.

Mouton closed strong, pushing Gonzalez back with shots in the final seconds of the fight, but it was too little too late as the busier Gonzalez got the obvious decision -- even though it was darned close on two scorecards. Coming to an end was Mouton's three-fight winning streak, which followed a 2009 decision loss to Curtis Stevens and a three-year stint in prison before his return in August.

Rafael's remarks: If you managed to stay awake through the entire fight, congratulations. This wasn't one for the time capsule. Santa Ana, Calif., prospect Rios, who turns 23 on Jan. 22, got the deserved win -- although judge Fritz Werner's shutout scorecard was absurd -- but also showed he has a lot of work to do. Ramos, 25, of Los Angeles, is a former junior featherweight titlist who moved up in weight and failed to impress two fights removed from being knocked out in the sixth round and losing his 122-pound title to Guillermo Rigondeaux in his first defense.

Rios was aggressive early on and opened up a nice lead, but he seemed to tire, or grow tentative, in the second half of the fight, which allowed Ramos to stay in it, at least on two scorecards. But Ramos didn't do nearly enough, as Rios beat him to the punch for most of the fight. Still, the victory for Rios was the most significant of his career in that he beat a former world titleholder and went 10 rounds for the first time.

Rafael's remarks: Arnett, 20, of Winter Park, Fla., was an amateur standout who turned pro at the end of 2011, fought 12 times in 2012 and kicked off his 2013 campaign by defeating his second consecutive undefeated opponent (although Jeremiah Wiggins, whom he stopped in the fourth round in November, dropped him). Quarles, 26, of Alexandria, Va., doesn't have much power (based on his record), but he hurt Arnett with right hands in the third and fourth rounds. The busier Arnett rebounded and by the time the fight was over, he was the clear victor.

Referee Ray Corona docked a point from Quarles for holding in the seventh round. Incidentally, Quarles was part of the same camp as former welterweight titlist Paul Williams. He served as one of Williams' chief sparring partners before the accident that forced Williams to retire last year. Quarles also is trained by George Peterson, Williams' career-long trainer and manager.

Also on the card, 22-year-old junior featherweight prospect Randy Caballero (18-0, 10 KOs), the crowd favorite from nearby Coachella, Calif., scored knockdowns in the first and fourth rounds and stopped former three-time world title challenger Luis Maldonado (36-11-1, 27 KOs), 34, of Mexico at 39 seconds of the fourth round. In another undercard bout, 2012 U.S. Olympic heavyweight Dominic Breazeale (3-0, 3 KOs), 27, of Anaheim, Calif., knocked out Michigan's Caleb Grummet (3-3-1, 2 KOs) 45 seconds into the second round.