Paul Williams, 38-1 (27) got up from the canvas to pull out a close, majority decision over Sergio Martinez, 44-2-2 (24) in Atlantic City. While Martinez landed the harder, head-snapping punches throughout the fight, it was Williams' constant pressure and greater punch volume that won two of the judges over. One judge saw a 114-114 draw, while the other two gave Williams the win with 115-113 and a 119-110 head-scratcher.
Seen by most boxing pundits as two of the better boxers in and around the junior middleweight division, (this fight was contested at 160) neither man disappointed. Things looked bad for Martinez early in the first when he went down after a long Williams left. Martinez turned his fortunes just before the bell by cracking Williams with a counter right hook that sent him stumbling backwards half-way across the ring and into the ropes.
The next two rounds went solidly to Martinez (unless you were the judge who scored 119-110 for Williams) as he rocked Williams repeatedly with his counter right hook. The 6'2" Williams had a bad habit of keeping his left hand on the the right side of his chin, leaving the left side of his face wide open for the opportunistic Martinez.
Apparently burnished by the experience of the previous rounds, Williams came charging in the fourth and managed to swing the fight's momentum in his favor by clocking Martinez with a straight left near the end of the round. A cut over Williams' left eye, from an apparent headbutt, gave the 28-year old something else to think about besides the mercurial and headstrong Argentinian in front of him.
Entering the body of the fight, both men scored heavily and provided a classic dilemma for the judges--would they favor the volume punching of Williams or the head snapping punches of Martinez.
The constant pressure from Williams succeeded in slowing down Martinez, who was becoming predictable and desperately needed a new wrinkle. He found it.
Sinking a straight left to the gut and following it with a right hook gave Martinez the opening he needed and he exploited it for a couple rounds until Williams' pressure snatched the momentum back. Into the championship rounds, Martinez appeared exhausted--at one point he seemed barely able to return to his feet after being pushed to the canvas by Williams--but still he managed to land the harder punches up until the final bell.
Chris Arreola Returns with a Knockout
On the undercard, a 263 pound (read, fat) Chris Arreola knocked out 218 pound Brian Minto at 2:40 of round four. The 6'4" Arreola, 28-1 (25) struggled at times with the 5'10" Minto, 34-3 (21) who made up for his size disadvantage with sheer toughness. Minto finally walked into a looping Arreola right early in the fourth that sent him to his knees. He got up fighting and managed to get in his licks before Arreola dropped him again. The referee had more mercy on Minto than Minto was ever going to have on himself and waived the fight.
This was Arreola's first fight since being stopped by Vitali Klitschko in September.
Bill Scherer - Bill Scherer has written for RingSports.com and TigerBoxing.com, enjoyed a stint as the Managing Editor for FightTube.tv and is a United ...
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