‘It was a (bleeping) great fight’

By Keith Idec of the RingTV / Photos by Naoki Fukuda

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – Barely beating Sergio Martinez might make the self-professed most-feared man in boxing avoid a rematch.

Paul Williams and his promoter, Dan Goossen, didn’t sound all that interested in granting Martinez a second chance after Williams escaped with a hard-fought majority decision win in their thrilling 12-round middleweight fight Saturday night at the Adrian Phillips Ballroom inside Boardwalk Hall.

Williams (38-1, 27 knockouts) survived a first-round knockdown, a cut over his eye in the fourth round and landed enough punches throughout an action-packed battle to convince two judges that he won the non-title bout. Judge Julie Lederman scored it even (114-114), but Lynne Carter credited Williams with a narrow win (115-113).

The third judge, Pierre Benoist, created controversy at ringside by submitting an eyebrow-raising 119-110 scorecard after a fight between skilled southpaws that was clearly closer.

“I feel like (Martinez) won,” said Lou DiBella, Martinez’s promoter. “That being said, I thought it was a close fight, I knew I was fighting a beast, I could live with a majority decision loss. But I can’t live with 119-110.”

The unofficial CompuBox statistics supported DiBella’s disgust.

CompuBox credited Williams landing 299 of 978 punches overall, including 206 of 631 power punches. Martinez landed 254 of 638 overall punches, and 183 of 446 power shots.

“It was an error, a true error,” Martinez said of Benoist’s scorecard. “We should have a rematch.”

Martinez (44-2-2, 24 KOs) shouldn’t count on an opportunity to avenge his first loss since Mexico’s Antonio Margarito knocked him out in the seventh round in February of 2000 in Las Vegas.

Goossen acknowledged that the fight Saturday night warranted a rematch. Nevertheless, he instead talked about matching Williams with Bernard Hopkins or Shane Mosley, if Mosley beats undefeated Andre Berto on Jan. 30 in Las Vegas.

Goossen seemed even less inclined to accept another fight against middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik. Williams was supposed to fight Pavlik Saturday night, but Pavlik withdrew in October because of a nagging hand injury.

Pavlik also postponed the Williams fight late in the summer from Oct. 3 to Saturday night due to a staph infection in his left hand, which has stunted his career.

“There would have to be a safety net and the split would have to be 50-50,” Goossen said. “If it’s not 50-50, the fight doesn’t get made.”

Goossen did acknowledge, however, that Martinez deserved better than Benoist’s 119-110 score.

“I obviously felt that was off-base,” Goossen said. “We’ll take it, but when everything was said and done, I believe Paul won the fight.”

In the first round, it looked like Williams might overwhelm Martinez the way he did Puerto Rico’s Carlos Quintana in their rematch in June 2008. Quintana out-boxed Williams in February 2008 to hand him what remains Williams’ lone loss, but Williams knocked out Quintana in their immediate rematch.

Williams dropped Martinez with a left hand early in the first round, but Martinez said he wasn’t hurt then, or at any other point in the fight. Martinez answered referee Randy Neumann’s count and came back to drop Williams with a short right hook just before the bell sounded to end the first round.

Williams was much more hurt than Martinez, but he regained his legs, took many flush punches from Martinez in the ensuing 11 rounds and never went down again. As usual, Williams threw many more punches than his opponent and never stopped coming forward.

“I was just wanted to keep making him fight,” Williams said, “and keep making him feel uncomfortable.”

Williams seemed to take control during the middle rounds of the bout, but Martinez mounted a late rally that made the fight tight on two of the three scorecards.

“He did what he always does,” Goossen said. “He never stops coming forward and he never stops throwing punches. He finally got his rhythm in about the fourth round, where he was the Paul that I’m used to seeing.”

DiBella was extremely impressed with what he saw from both boxers, too.

“It was a classic,” DiBella said. “It was a (bleeping) great fight. It was Gatti-Ward at a higher skill level. The skill level of the fight was ridiculous, but I thought my guy was fighting a guy that no one ever wants to fight.

“I’ve been saying this for a few years. Sergio Martinez is one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. There is nobody at 154 that can beat him. There is nobody at 160, other than Paul Williams, that can beat him. He would walk through Kelly Pavlik.”

Earlier Saturday night, heavyweight contender Chris Arreola made an impressive comeback from his lopsided loss to Vitali Klitschko on Sept. 26 in Los Angeles.

At the heaviest weight of his career, the 6-foot-4, 263-pound Arreola knocked out a courageous-

but-overmatched Brian Minto in the fourth round of a scheduled 10-round fight.

Minto attempted to out-box the bigger, stronger Arreola during the first three rounds, but Arreola drilled Minto with a counter right hand about 1:05 into the fourth. Minto answered referee Eddie Cotton’s count, only to have Arreola attack him and drop him again with around 30 seconds left in the fight.

Minto (34-3, 21 KOs), of Butler, Pa., got up again, but Cotton called an end to the bout at 2:40 of the fourth round.

“I hope I sent the message that I’m still a man to be reckoned with,” said Arreola, (28-1, 25 KOs), of Riverside, Calif. “He’s not Vitali Klitschko, but he’s a tough guy.”

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record in New Jersey.