By Jim Dower: The long awaited rematch between Sergio Martinez (45-2-2, 24 KO’s) and Paul Williams (39-1, 27 KO’s) will be announced this Thursday for a November 20th bout, according to the latest boxing news from Dan Rafael of ESPN. There’s still no venue for the fight, but at least the two fighters have finally agreed to make the fight happen.
They last fought a year ago in December with Williams winning a controversial 12 round majority decision at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Williams landed more shots in the fight, but Martinez landed the cleaner punches throughout.
Since then, Martinez has gotten back on the winning track with an impressive 12 round unanimous decision over WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik last April. Martinez, 35, looked sensational in that fight and made the slower Pavlik look amateurish and slow.
For his part, 29, was recently involved in a strange fight with Kermit Cintron in May, a fight in which Cintron suddenly dove between the ropes after getting his feet tangled with Williams in the 4th round.
Cintron landed on the floor and hurt his shoulder and needed to be taken out of the ring on a stretcher to a nearby hospital.
Martinez had been hoping that either Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Manny Pacquiao would step up to the plate and agree to fight him. However, neither of them has shown any interest in taking on skillful Martinez. As such, Martinez will have to settle for fighting Williams again.
Williams has been talking about moving down in weight to the welterweight division in hopes of getting a big money fight against guys like Mayweather, Pacquiao, Andre Berto or Miguel Cotto.
However, it’s highly unlikely that any of those fighters will willingly agree to fight the tall 6’1” Williams unless they absolutely have to. At the end of the way, Martinez may be the best and the only option that Williams has right now.
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