By Chris Williams: Next month, two-time WBO welterweight champion Paul Williams (39-1, 27 KO’s) will be facing World Boxing Council (WBC) middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (45-2-2, 24 KO’s) in a rematch at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The two fighters clashed last year in December with the 29-year-old Williams winning a controversial 12 round unanimous decision. It was a victory that wasn’t a popular one with the boxing public, who felt that Martinez’s harder shots landed in the fight should have been enough for him to earn the win.

Now, nearly a year later, the two will fight for Martinez’s WBC middleweight title, which he won in April in a victory over then champion Kelly Pavlik. Martinez also won the WBO middleweight title in that bout, but the WBO stripped him of the title recently. Martinez also previously held the WBC junior middleweight title, but recently vacated the title when he was forced to decide which titles he would defend.

Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito will now fight for the vacant WBC junior middleweight tile. Had Martinez not given it up, it’s highly unlikely that either Pacquiao or Margarito would have been matched against him because of Martinez’s ability to move around the ring and box. Pacquiao and Margarito don’t do well against fighters like Martinez that use movement.

Despite the Williams vs. Martinez II bout being an interesting fight, the bout is basically being ignored by boxing fans thus far. Perhaps interest will build in the fight as it draws closer, but it’s not a good sign that the bout isn’t being discussed in boxing forums on the internet. That generally means that it’s a fight that boxing fans are lukewarm about. Boxing fans would rather see Martinez or Williams matched against fighters like Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. However, it’s incredibly unlikely that either of those fighters would chose to fight Martinez and Williams because it would make for a tough fight that they wouldn’t be guaranteed to win.

Williams outworked Martinez a year ago by landing a lot of weaker shots. However, Martinez was able to land with clean left hands and win a lot of the exchanges because of his better power. The rematch will likely be a lot like the first fight with the judges having to decide whether to score Martinez’s cleaner landing shots or to give rounds to Williams based on his high volume punch output.