Martinez-Williams: Clear cut candidate for ‘Fight of the Year!’
December 6th, 2009
Photo credit: Naoki Fukuda – By Sam Gregory: In the main event at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City on December 5th Paul Williams and Sergio Martinez fought a 12 round non-title bout in the middleweight division that will surely be a candidate for “fight of the year”. This fight was non-stop action from the opening bell in round one until the final bell in round 12. Both of these great warriors gave a brilliant performance this night!
After a clinch in round 2 Williams was hanging on to Martinez who threw a three punch combination and landed a solid right hook to Williams’ head; Martinez is throwing and landing punches with blinding speed!
In round three Williams is pursuing Martinez around the ring, Paul lands a solid jab but Martinez counters with another three punch combination.
By the fourth round its clear to see Martinez’ big weapon is his right hook.
In round 5 savage punches were exchanged by both men, it was center of the ring toe to toe action. This around also marked the turning point for Williams, he seemed more confident in this round and the number of punches landed starting getting closer to the number of punches thrown.
In round 6 Williams still seemed to leave himself open for Martinez’ right hook which Martinez landed pretty much at will. Williams was much busier in this round and he started closing the gap.
By the start of round 7 the fight appeared to be dead even; three rounds a piece. Williams is starting to make Martinez miss with his punches; right before the round ended Martinez landed a solid right hook.
In round 8 both men trade in the center of the ring, Williams has blood dripping from his face; Martinez lands three solid left hooks, Martinez lands another left to the body and right hook to the head rocked Williams head back; big right hook is Martinez’ best shot.
In round 9 Martinez lands a big right hook to the body; both men trade body shots, big right hook by Martinez lands before the end of the round.
In round 10 Martinez lands two big left hands; Williams is leaving himself open to the left hand and Martinez is taking advantage of it landing with several hard big left hands.
In round 11 both men trade punches; Martinez is landing the cleaner more solid punches; Martinez is landing brutal right left combinations and finishes with a big right hand to win the round; 67 power shots landed in this round for both men.
Round 12 Martinez is landing the more solid flashy punches; this round was as dramatic as the first. This was clearly a fight of the year candidate!
After the 12th and final round the fight goes to the judge’s scorecards; Julie Lederman scores the fight 114-114 even. Judge Lynn Carter scores the fight 113-115 and Judge Pierre Benoist scores the fight 110-119 all for the winner by majority decision Paul Williams.
Williams improves his record to 38-1 with 27 KO’s; Sergio Martinez falls to 44-2-2 with 24 KO’s.
This was a very close fight and could have gone either way by a round or 2 but scoring the fight 110-119 which means that Martinez only won one round is a travesty! Pierre Benoist should have his license to score fights revoked!
This fight was certainly a candidate for “Fight of the Year!”
Tags: 34 Responses to “Martinez-Williams: Clear cut candidate for ‘Fight of the Year!’”
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Aye fellas that really was fight of the year. Martinez WAS dropping bombs on my boy Williams. Honestly, I could have swore Martinez was gonna knock his head off of Williams’ shoulders. I was scared williams was gonna get knocked out…but he took those punches like a “G”. Not only that but the man took those crazy punches and kept coming forward and kept applying immense pressure which is what won him the decision. I think everyone agrees Martinez landed the harder punches. Who landed the most… who controlled the tempo…who retreated? Cash these guys out for a title rematch. Belts don’t matter though..just money and respect. Margaritto turned down $8 million to rematch P.Williams and try to win the belt back that Williams took from him. He fought Moseley for way less money cause mosely lost to Cotto and Margaritto got knocked out.
Boxing Don let’s get some facts about this fight. PW threw over 900 punches(he normally is over 1,000 just check against Wright and Margarito) which is some kind of shocking for a guy who averages about 100 puches/rd. So that is an advantage for Sergio, second, Martinez was off balance and Williams was severely hurt when the bell sounded at the end of the round so, Martinez won that round. Third, Williams had a great strecht form rounds 4-7 but Martinez came back and earn his points. You look like Emannuel Steward trying to defend Mr. Benoist with that argument of the agrresor, please you’re better than that. And also tell me if you think that Martinez was going to put the performance he put on Saturday night, because if you expect Williams to wear down Martinez it never happened, so Martinez won anyway you can put it.
Sergio Martinez is the real deal and deserving of his 154lb WBC Cahmpionship. The fight could have been a draw but I feel Martinez edge him out with landing so many power shots. Paul was out on his stoole from seven on and fighting on straight heart & volume punching, he’s still no joke. Great Fight. REMATCH for the belt this time lets raise the stakes.
Sergio Martinez is no joke…but I don’t know how some of you bloggers can say Williams is over rated. Oh yeah I forgot …you girls couldn’t tell a good fighter from a fraud if your life depended on it. First of all Paul Williams doesn’t care about ratings girls. He just wants to fight the best fighters in the world…but guess what…the best fighters in the world don’t want no part of Paul Williams. The man can’t get nobody in the ring with him cause they too busy being scared. Dude got ring rust cause Kelly Pavlik signed up to fight, then chickened out at the last minute. Do this for me…convince any of your favorite(top rated) fighters from 147-160 that Paul Williams is over rated…PLEASE cause every time Paul’s name gets mentioned all I hear is excuses and knees knocking. And thats not Pauls fault. Martinexz was tired cause Paul kept putting that PRESSURE on him…even after being hit with bombs, he was right back in Martinez’ face. Over rate that.
Guys, the fight was close through round 10… bottom line is you cannot lose the last two rounds in a close fight. Sergio was spent and needs to work on his stamina. Williams really needs to be careful moving up and down weight divisions… he was definately not as sharp in this fight. He needs to pick a weight division and let his body get accustomed to it.
Boxing don youre the reason the judge from New Jersy scored the fight the way he did .By being the aggressor do you mean throwing air puches and pitty pat puches or do you mean the way martinez scored with clean effective hard puches.hum
BOXING DON….. WAS MARTINEZ EVER REALLY HURT IN THE FIGHT? DONT TELL ME THE 1ST ROUND KNOCKOUT HURT HIM…. HE WAS OFF BALANCE AND THE REPLAY SHOWED IT WAS A SLIGHT HIT. NOW PAUL GOT ROCKED IN 1ST ROUND…. HE GOT HIT WITH POWER LEFT PUNCHEZ ONE AFTER THE OTHER… HOW DOES PAUL WIN?
Its a shame of all the people who watch boxing but know little about the sport. I read most of the comments and I see alot of heart felt comments which really expresses personal feeling versus fact. First of all, I saw Williams winning by decision and I was in the second row. I think by Martinez allowing Williams to be the aggressor hurt him. He was past tired in the last two rounds, and if you are a stats guy, you see Williams threw more of everthing and landed more of everything. So, it puzzles me on how someone can say Martinez won the fight. I think in a rematch, it all depends how much was taken out of both fighters. Martinez really got hit and his face dob’t really show it because of his genectics. I don’t agree with the judge having widely for Williams but I saw Williams win by decision.
Paul Williams is not overated, hes a risk taker. His defense is obviously not that good but he can take a good punch. Martinez is a great southpaw at 154. He should thank Williams because in a rematch he will be more famous. He probably win and make the third fight a big money pay day for both.
even fight. hello rematch!
How can people say PW “clearly won the fight?”. That’s ridiculous! Sergio Martinez got robbed, although it was a close fight. I’ve watched the fight 3 times now and I still give the fight 115-113 to Sergio. PW has a name people recognize, and that means $$ for the promoters.
Before this fight, not even my boxing buddies had seen a SM fight. It reminds me of people calling Joe Calzaghe a “euro bum” before the Jeff Lacy fight.
33, i know that Manny WILL ko williams @ 147 or 154. williams rep as “most avoided fighter” is now in the trash can along with tiger woods “wholesome” reputation. can anyone picture Manny giving williams one of his 7 punch combos?? its called niquil time !!
hi folks,
that is just a diversionary tactics. Paul Williams just painted a picture that he can be beaten.
there will be more fights for him down the road at this point.
I watched the fight and i think that Sergio won though it is a close decision.
If Sergio posted some difficulty for Williams. What more for Pac.
At any rate, Pac will still demolish Paul at 147
Great great fight!!
why was it not at 154 for the title? pointless and stupid. and yeah martinez won even tho im a punisher fan
Anybody that saw the martinez fight knows that he was robbed if was called a boxing match but as everybody saw williams slapping and martinez landing the effective punches what a travesty that martinez put forth such a great effort and get robbed in the end .But thats what we put up by letting the judges be influenced by promoters.
Fight of the year? It was a great figth but it shows that these two boxer needs to increased their stamina falling off at the last two rounds , give the fight of the year to those who has better stamina for that is what fight of the year is all about, athletism , skills , both have great heart though. And to those who predict a Williams win if theres a rematch , what are nostradamus ? Just whatch the replay then so you wont get dissapointed.
This fight should be fight of the year. This was a great fight between two of the best in the world,but the only thing was wrong with fight was the judge that scored the fight 119-110 should be hang for calling a bad score like that. Year 2009 was the year of the cheating judges that judge great fight to a disgrace, like the Cotto vs. Clottey then the Paulie vs. Juan and then Andre vs Collazo and the Holyfield vs Valveu and then Funkea vs Guzman and now the Paul vs. Martinez fight that one should of been a Draw and not Paul winning 119-110. That Judge Benoit should be banned period from scoring a pro boxing match anymore.Benoit, it judges like him that make the game of boxing very bad. I hope 2010 Judges be better in scoring and those judges in 2009 that got payed of throw the fight should banned period. Those judges that scored these fight should be banned period.
Is Paul Williams overrated? or is Martinez that good? Think about it that was a great fight! Fight could of gone either way and no one would complain if the fight wasn’t scored by a blind judge. How well would Mayweather or Manny look against Martinez or would they even sign the contract to fight an elite fighter of Martinez’s caliber? Martinez is that good. Paul and Martinez are the most avoided fighters right now.
Williams is just an overrated boxer, may be he is good in 147lbs….
Segio Martinez was robbed, and Paul Williams is not what the media think. I saw an article in this sit saying: When will Paul Williams be appreciated?, we have found the answer why he is not, he doesn’t convince anybody. Paul is overrated, or the people that says he is not was expecting this to happen on Saturday??? against a 154# fighter who doesn’t have KO punching ability on his resmue, please don’t tell me that Sergio was expected to fight the way he fought. I lost a few bucks but I fell great the way Sergio did it, showing a lot of people that he deserves to be where he is.
for what I see sergio martinez is another good fighter whom just got robbed again,firts was the baby cryer cintron and now this fight,MARTINEZ thats the price we have to pay just because we are latino people in usa
They give the desicion to the man they can make the most money with–not to the man who wins the fight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9awb7nzSgr0&feature=response_watch
click the link
This was a very good fight. Not sure about fight of the year. I think Pac-Cotto was fight of the year. Williams seemed slow, however I saw that he clearly won. The judge with 119-110 was wrong, however I think the judge with draw was wrong as well. Williams landed more punches, was the aggressor and hurt Sergio as much as Sergio hurt him. Williams won the last two rounds while Sergio was exhausted. It was a competitive fight, like I said, Williams clearly won.
Sergio Martinez was robbed. Paul Williams is just overrated.
what are you sayin paul williams is overrated it was a close fight could have gone either way but paul got the W if they do it again they do it again but in the rematch the punisher would ko him like quintana
This is a travesty, at least they should make it a draw , and how can you explain a 110-119 score when the fight was too close and Paul the super middleweigth Williams got his head turned side to side by Martinez’s punches. It’s a stupid judge or blind colored judge or , he got paid judge .This is what’s wrong in boxing giving decision to much popular fighter just becouse their popular. I mean give the credit to where it’s due, regardless of who they are or where they come from, let the skills and punches decide, not becouse your popular, just llike what happen last week with Funeka, he also got rob even though he clearly deserve the win. Judges should be tested yearly to make sure they are up to par with what they do, or they can weed their own ranks with stupid judges.
I had it 1 round to martinez but then again i watched a bad quality vid so… That judge who scored it 119 should be fired.
There should be a review committee to stop clowns like Benoist from ruining the sport.
Pacquiao would demolish both.
That judge that had it 119 – 110 needs to go back to school!
First the draw against cintron and now this 119-110 scandal. This is why the box is not a real sport, its like those fake wrestling shows…if floyd mayweather was argentinian he would have a record of 30-10 by now.
Sergio Martinez is the best. Paul Williams is just overrated.