By Erik Schmidt: Stamina plagued Cuban cruiserweight Yoan Pablo Hernandez (19-1, 11 KOs) pulled off a surprising 8-round unanimous decision over former amateur star Aaron Williams (19-2-1, 13 KOs) on Saturday night at the Jako Arena, in Bamberg, Germany. The final judges’ scores were 79-76, 80-72 and 80-72.

Hernandez, 24, a former Cuban amateur star who defected to Germany in 2006, pressured Williams throughout the bout, hitting him big shots and daring Williams to open up with his fast combinations. However, Williams fought timidly for the most part, refusing to let his hands go for some reason as if he was pacing himself or afraid to get caught with something.

Hernandez, 6’4”, looked much taller and stronger than the 6’1” Williams. The power and the pressure that Hernandez was putting on Williams was the telling factor in this fight, because Williams didn’t have the size or enough power in his shots to compete for most of the fight with the former Cuban star.

Granted, the southpaw Hernandez has good power in his left hand, but he’s not a one-punch knockout artist by any stretch of the imagination. Williams should have opened up more with his offense than he did, because Hernandez has shown to be vulnerable in the past against big punchers like Williams.

There were no knockdowns in the fight, but mostly because the fight was a tactical bout with both fighters picking their spots carefully to let their hands go. Hernandez, however, was much more comfortable with throwing bombs and trying to get the action going, whereas Williams seemed to be in the survival mode against Hernandez.

Williams started off well in the first round, moving and jabbing Hernandez continuously in the round. Williams caught Hernandez with some nice right hands near the end of the round as Hernandez was coming in trying to land some shots. If the fight had stopped right here at this point, Williams would have won the fight. Things didn’t stay this way as Hernandez would be to dominate the fight in the coming rounds with his power and constant pressure.

In the 2nd round, Hernandez stalked Williams around the ring looking for opportunities to land a big shot. Williams looked nervous and moved frequently, changing directions all the time. Williams was able to land a lot of jabs and a few right hands in the first two minutes of the round.

However, Hernandez caught up with Williams in the last minute and hit him with some hard left hands to the head as the taller Hernandez chopped down on the shorter Williams. For his part, Williams was beginning to look tired from his nonstop movement, and his punches, which were no match for Hernandez’s shots, were weakened by the movement.

Hernandez looked confident in the 3rd round, stalking Williams and landing some big left uppercuts to the head and lefts to the body in the first minute of the round. After getting hit by Hernandez’s left uppercut, Williams looked frightened and began to move even more than he had been before.

Hernandez caught up to Williams again in the 2nd minute of the round and landed a hard right hand. Williams was now doing nothing but moving and trying to stay away from Hernandez’s big shots. Near the end of the round, Hernandez caught Williams with a big right hand to the head.

In the 4th round, Hernandez followed after Williams, loading up on left hands and powerful left-right combinations. It wasn’t easy for Hernandez to track Williams down because the American moved always and was only somewhat stationary when he was near the ropes. Williams had a deer caught in the headlights look to him and seemed disinterested in exchanging punches with Hernandez.

Williams started off well in the 5th and 6th rounds, throwing combinations to the body and head. However, in both rounds Hernandez came on in the 2nd minute of the round and began to land some huge shots. In the 6th, Hernandez caught Williams with a tremendous left hook that snapped Williams’ head back and sent him bouncing backwards against the ropes. Williams was able to fire back with some jabs, but he continued to take some heavy shots for the remainder of the round.

Hernandez connected with several huge left hands in the 7th. Williams fired back with some combinations of his own, but his punches were much weaker than Hernandez’s big shots. The round was really one-sided with Hernandez dominating.

In the 8th, Hernandez appeared to take the round off, using it to mostly move and run out the clock. Williams, perhaps knowing that he was well behind in the fight took the fight to Hernandez, and tried to land some power shots. However, Williams didn’t have nearly enough power to cause Hernandez any difficulties.