Former world title contender Thomas Dulorme has offered a definitive assessment of the tragic October 2015 bout between Prichard Colón and Terrel Williams, placing the lion’s share of the blame on referee Joe Cooper rather than Williams.
Speaking exclusively to World Boxing News, Dulorme addressed the controversial fight in Fairfax, Virginia, where Colón repeatedly complained about illegal rabbit punches before suffering catastrophic brain bleeding that left him permanently incapacitated. While Williams has faced intense public backlash for years, Dulorme argues that enforcing the rules was ultimately the referee’s duty.
“Punches to the back of the head are illegal. It doesn’t matter who the fighter is—they are illegal punches,” Dulorme told WBN. “There is a man inside that ring whose responsibility is to enforce the rules, and that man is the referee. He needed to intervene and stop what was happening before it reached the point that it did.”
While acknowledging that Williams had an obligation to control his adrenaline and respect the sport’s boundaries, Dulorme insists Cooper carried the greater duty as the official authority inside the ring:
“Williams was a fighter trying to do what he needed to do to win that night… The referee was there specifically to intervene when those rules were not being followed. I place more responsibility on the referee than on Williams.”
Dulorme’s analysis comes from a unique viewpoint: in August 2018, three years after the Colón tragedy, he became the first professional boxer to defeat the previously unbeaten Williams via unanimous decision over ten rounds.
