HBO Boxing – Sergio Martinez Vs. Paul Williams Play By Play

On the undercard, Cris Arreola overwhelmed a very game Brian Minto who was smaller and didn’t hit as accurately or as hard. He had to resort to taking a big shot in order to throw some big hooks, but he finally went down for good in the 4th round.

Paul Williams and Sergio Martinez are happening because Kelly Pavlik tried to postpone his original fight with Williams twice. Pavlik has had a few issues with staph, and simply not being physically ready, and some think that he really just didn’t want to fight. Thus, Martinez is in and stepping up a bit in weight against the pogo stick up and down weighted Williams, though they’re generally the same weight in the ring tonight.

Shout out to our good friend Tim Starks at his boxing blog Queensberry Rules. He is live at this fight and he’s also moved his site over to a new blog host.

Sergio Martinez vs. Paul Williams

R1
Williams has some of the ugliest ring gear that I’ve ever seen in my life. He’s wearing metallic purple trunks with orange trim and purple gloves and shoes. It took all of a minute for Williams to put him down with a left hand on the top of the head. Martinez’s best shot was a lead overhand left that stung Williams a bit. It looks like that’s going to be his go-to punch for the fight as he’s thrown in another time. Wow, right before the bell, Martinez put Williams down with a big right hook. Amazing first round.

R2
Harold Lederman gave the first round to Martinez even though both guys put each other down. It’s based on the idea that Martinez’s shot was more hurtful to Williams than the other way around. I doubt all three of those judges saw it that way because it was an easy 9-9 to score. I can definitely see his mentality on that.

Martinez opened up even more in this round. Every time Williams comes in Martinez has a left hand waiting for him. He’s also throwing a great jab. Martinez had Williams’ off-balanced and out of whack. Strong round for him.

R3
Williams is back on his game, though Martinez is still hitting him. But this round was much more at his pace. Martinez complained about a head butt, which seemed to bother him and allowed Williams to land. I think Williams is just trying to overwhelm Martinez like he does everyone, but Martinez is hitting him at times where Williams is leaning in not ready for it. Martinez right hooked him to death.

(Lederman explained that someone has to earn 10 points in a round, which makes the first round either a 10-10 or a 10-9, so my thought that it could’ve been 9-9 was incorrect. It’s called 10 point must for a reason and I just had a loss of logic for a second.)

R4
There’s no way that both of these guys can fight at this pace. The round was a little sloppy, but these guys are throwing punches. Williams is leading the charge, but Martinez is letting him get inside and then throwing his big shots. Martinez looks to be getting tired and might’ve lost this round. Williams stung him at the end of the round, but has a cut on his left eyelid. Great action packed round.

Fights can ebb and flow many times throughout, but if Williams comes back to win this fight decisively, that fourth round could be the turning point.

R5
Martinez really got the round started with about 80 seconds left in the round. He woke up Williams with a big shot and Williams started to throw heavy punches. This is turning into much more of a slugfest than I anticipated. I thought this would be an entertaining fight, but one that was more of a punch/counter punch battle, but these guys are really engaging and throwing big shots. Williams just won his second round in a row.

R6
The round was close but it was a round in which Williams’ controlled and thus, I think he won it. Martinez definitely looks like he’s more tired of the two.

R7
Martinez probably landed the best shot of the round, but cumulatively, Williams landed more good shots than Martinez did. Near the end of the round, they both landed shots at exactly the same time. I think Williams is starting to pull away a bit.

(Because both of these guys are avoided, I imagine that as long as this fight stays competitive, we could probably see a rematch and maybe at 154.)

R8
Martinez was doing something brilliantly this round to take his first round on my scorecard in a while. He was lowering his body to throw body shots and then when it wasn’t expected, he went to the head and nailed Williams and wobbled him. Williams took the shot, but was vulnerable. It looks like something that Martinez could utilize for the rest of the fight.

R9
It was a bit of a down round compared to the rest of the rounds. Williams controlled it with his type of round, but neither guy really did much.

R10
Strong round for Martinez, but Williams got in some big shots inside too. Martinez landed two big lefts, but Williams was busier and pretty in control with the exception of those two shots.

R11
Some of this round is simply that Martinez as the small man looks more impressive hitting Williams than the other way around. I still think it’s Williams’ round, though Jim Lampley and company are definitely building up Martinez as the story of the fight. This is either a draw round for me, or slightly with Williams.

R12
Williams has a cut over his right eye too. Martinez looks really tired but it still fighting in a spirited manner. Williams hooked him to the ground but it was more of Williams pushing him to the ground and it wasn’t ruled a knockdown. To me, Williams looks stronger whereas Martinez is throwing more punches in desperation, probably because he’s so tired. It’s definitely a style that fans can get behind, but I like the guy who is controlling the fight. I gave it to Williams again.

I have it 116-113 for Williams. Harold Lederman had it 115-113.

Here were the rest of the scorecards: 114-114, 115-113, 119-110

Winner: Paul Williams by way of majority decision

119-110? Wow.

I’d love to see these guys do it again and at 154.

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