ATLANTIC CITY – Last year when Paul Williams and Sergio Martinez met, they were drawn to each other because neither man could land the match that they wanted.
Sometimes in boxing sparks can fly from a marriage of convenience. That was the case with Williams and Martinez, two all-action southpaws. They battled – trading knockdowns – in what some thought was “The Fight of the Year” before Williams walked away with a 12-round majority decision.
This time it is a marriage made in boxing heaven as Williams and Martinez will fight for the WBC middleweight title that Martinez lifted from Kelly Pavlik in April at Boardwalk Hall on HBO’s “Championship Boxing” Saturday night. The fight will be preceded by a re-broadcast of last week’s match between Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito at 10 p.m.
It is rare that world-class caliber boxers look forward to fighting each other once, let alone twice. But Williams and Martinez are throwback. They want to test themselves against the best. The winner will take a giant step forward in the esteem department, but could find it even more difficult to find a meaningful match against a quality opponent.
The first time that the two met Williams (39-1, 27 KOs) had been preparing to fight Pavlik. But Pavlik pulled out three weeks before the match. He moved on to Martinez and had just three weeks to prepare. It was a completely different style adjustment for Williams. Martinez is a lefty who uses movement, speed and throws a volume of punches – a stark contrast to Pavlik who is more methodical, using his jab as a platform.
George Peterson, Williams’ trainer, said the short notice was the main reason for Williams’ uneven performance in the first fight. Williams said a full camp in preparation for Martinez will yield a better performance from him this time.
“I’m going to do what I do best and we’ll put a real beating on this time,” Williams said. “If the knockout comes, it comes. I’m going to put that beating on him this time. It’ll be much more brutal this time.”
Martinez said Williams and Peterson are using excuses. He believes he saw Williams’ best effort in the first fight and doesn’t expect that Williams will be able to turn up the intensity of his performance for the rematch. He said there was fear in their training camp.
“They’re saying that because they know deep in their hearts what happened in that first fight,” Martinez said.
Williams is a two-time welterweight champion who still wants to campaign at 147 pounds. He believes the middleweight championship that Martinez won from Pavlik would have been his if Pavlik hadn’t twice pulled out of fights.
“I feel like Martinez stole something from me, he stole the belts that are supposed to be mine,” Williams said. “I had two chances of getting them and both times it didn’t happen and so now he got them. It’s more motivation for me to go in this and put in a hell of a fight.”
While Martinez (45-2-2, 24 KOs) was winning the titles from Pavlik, Williams was involved in a strange bout with Kermit Cintron. The fight ended in technical decision after Cintron jumped or fell out of the ring in the fourth round.
Martinez said the thing that caught his eye in that fight was how cautious Williams fought. He believes it was a result of the fight that he had with Williams in December. He thinks he has gotten inside of Williams’ head.
Williams said there won’t be any head games, but there will be plenty of head hunting.
“This one will be more brutal this time. It will be more action and there will be more punches thrown,” Williams said. “The same as on the first fight but ten times more so. It’s going to be a good fight but I know I’m coming out with the win, either with a knockout or even with a decision.”
