Carlos Quintana Continues Comeback Against Jesse Feliciano

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Puerto Rican southpaw Carlos Quintana, the only man to defeat Paul Williams, will meet Jesse Feliciano in a scheduled 10-round junior welterweight (154 pounds) bout on Saturday night in the Adrian Phillips Ballroom at Boardwalk Hall.

The 33-year-old Quintana (26-2, 20 knockouts) dethroned Williams as WBO welterweight (147) champion in February 2008, but was knocked out in their rematch four months later.

Quintana has since rebounded from that setback with October's fourth-round stoppage of Joshua Onyango.

Quintana-Feliciano (15-7-3, nine KOs) is part of the undercard of the 12-round, non-title middleweight (160) main event between Williams (37-1, 27 KOs) and Sergio Martinez (44-1-2, 24 KOs).

Martinez, the WBC's interim junior middleweight champ, replaced WBO and WBC middleweight titlist Kelly Pavlik (35-1, 31 KOs), whose matchup with Williams was canceled due to a staph infection on the knuckle of Pavlik's left forefinger.

When Pavlik-Williams was canceled, so was the entire card, which included a matchup between Quintana and welterweight title contender Joshua Clottey.

Quintana weighed 153.5 to 152 for the 27-year-old Feliciano, who was stopped in the 10th and eighth rounds, respectively, of his last two fights with Kermit Cintron and Andrey Tsurkan.



"I went through some frustration when I found out that tomorrow night's fight wouldn't be against Joshua Clottey. But I'm a veteran, and my mind is focused. I know how to deal with that," said Quintana, whose only other loss was by fifth-round knockout against former world champion Miguel Cotto in December of 2006.

"This is a big step for me, because in 2010, I want to fight for a title at 154 pounds," said Quintana. "I want to have a new opportunity in that weight class, and it doesn't matter of it's against Sergio Martinez, Paul Williams or anyone else."

Also on the undercard is a heavyweight fight between 249-pound southpaw, Tony Thompson (32-2, 20 KOs) of Washington, D.C., and 234-pound Chazz Witherspoon (26-1, 18 KOs) of Philadelphia.

Thompson is coming off of a fifth-round knockout of Adnan Serin in March after having been stopped in the 11th round of his July 2008 title bout with IBF and WBO champion Wladimir Klitschko.

"It's a new beginning, a way to show people that I'm back in business. It's time to show the people the real fighter that I can be," said Thompson, a 38-year-old who stands 6-foot-5 and who is trained by 1976 Olympic silver medalist, Charles Mooney.

Thompson said that he fought Klitschko with a meniscus tear in his right knee.

"People didn't know about the injury, but since then, I've had two surgeries on it," said Thompson. "But now, the injuries are over, and I'm back and ready to go. I'll show people the real me on Saturday night."

The 6-4 Witherspoon, who is 28, has scored three consecutive knockouts since losing to Chris Arreola in June 2008.

Arreola (27-1, 24 KOs) will face Brian Minto (34-2, 21 KOs) in another undercard matchup on Saturday night.

"This is a really important fight because the winner of this is back in the mix. Tony understands that, and I understand that, and I think he'll come forward and put forth his best effort," said Witherspoon. "Whoever's able to effectively stick to their gameplan and execute their strategy the best will win the fight."