In arguably the toughest fight of his career, Paul Williams escaped with a majority decision victory against the wily and game Sergio Martinez. However, if you only caught the end of the fight, you might have thought that Sergio had won the fight convincingly. After the bell rang to end the 12th round, Sergio, along with his team, were smiling and beaming with confidence, while Williams had the look of a fighter who was unsure if he did enough to win. Make no mistake, the fight was competitive from the beginning until the end. Paul Williams is not overrated; Sergio Martinez is just better than we thought.
Sergio showed deceptive speed and was surprisingly quick on his feet, which probably surprised Williams. Also, it looked like Sergio had been watching a few tapes of Pacquiao as he effectively used angles and movements to confuse Williams. He also proved to be a descent counterpuncher as he used Paul’s long reach to his own advantage. The longer they are, the longer it takes to recoil back to a throwing position. When he got inside, he let his hands go and matched Williams punch for punch. If only he didn’t have the bad habit of leaving his hands low, then he might have gotten the nod from the judges.
Although I thought Sergio did enough to get a close decision victory, as I scored the fight 115-113 for him, there were a few rounds that were close and could have gone to either fighter, so I could see someone giving the victory to Williams. This fight was definitely one of the most competitive and entertaining fights of the year. Some may come to a quick assumption that Paul Williams may have been overrated due to the surprising result, but what this fight truly proved was that Sergio Martinez has some skills and proved to be a better fighter than many of us thought.
It’s too bad that most discussions about this fight will be centered on the ridiculous scorecard (119-110) of judge Pierre Benoist instead of the incredible performances that both fighters provided.
