Paul Williams returned after a 8 month lay off against undefeated Erislandy Lara out of Cuba. Many critics and fans were surprised that Williams would take on such a dangerous fight after his Knockout loss last November, yet Williams and his team wanted to get back in the mix with the best fighters out there. Lara was their guy.
The fight started out with Williams stalking Lara and in return Lara to avoiding staying in one place for too long moving around the ring never allowing Williams to throw a bunch of punches as he usually does.
Lara established early that Williams was open to be countered with the left hand and it stayed that way throughout the entire fight. The fight was a back and forth battle with Williams being the busier fighter but Lara landing more of the telling and hard punches throughout the fight. Through 6 rounds I had the fight even, with neither man pulling away. Lara started to dictate the pace and from the 7th round until at least the 11th continued to beat Williams to the punch, even wobbling Williams in the 7th. Williams usually the busier fighter struggled to catch Lara with any solid combos or clean punches-Lara utilized the ring and established he was there to win the fight
Williams kept the pressure on Lara but by most observers was not landing anything of substance and looked awful when he kept getting hit with the left. By the end of the 10th Williams was a bloody mess, thanks to the right from Lara-Lara also had a good size lump on his his from Williams, which showed to some that Williams was landing good amount of leather on Lara, perhaps more than it looked.
In the end, most observes felt it was a clear decision Lara had beaten Williams on this night and when the first 114-114 scorecard was 
read the crowd let out a collective gasp and as the next two cards were read 115-114 and 116-114 both for Williams, shock and disappointment filled the small Atlantic city ballroom.
Paul Williams was given a gift tonight, one that many feel he did not deserve or earned. Max Kellerman of HBO mentioned that Paul Williams corner said he needed a knockout to win the fight. He didn’t get a knockout but he he got the W regardless. One thing is for certain, Paul Williams did not look like the Paul Williams most fans came to know-perhaps the fight was a bad move picking such a good fighter or maybe he has lost something from his loss to Martinez. Only time will tell. Williams stated he wanted another crack at Sergio Martinez, even after such a bad fight tonight maybe a tune up or at least a less dangerous opponent would be good for him and definitely not a southpaw.
Boxing fans will see Paul Williams again, against Martinez? Hopefully not in the next fight as there are glaring issues Williams needs to address, however, his poor performance may lead to other fighters willing to step in the ring with him now and that may be the best gift of all.
And then…
Based on compubox stats William threw 1047 punches to Lara’s 530, yet only landed 200 to Lara’s 224 that connected. Williams will never be beat in who throws the most punches but tonight he clearly lost with the amount of punches that landed. It may have been his high output that swayed the judges to give the fight to Williams. However that also means Paul Williams averaged only 16 punches per round still not a reason to give Paul the fight.
Twitter was going crazy with a lot of upset fans-I honestly felt more upset about the Alexander vs Lucas Matthysse or Felix Sturm v Matt Macklin fight than I did about the Williams fight. I will have to re watch it and see what I see what I missed being there live.
The temperature in AC was 90 degrees but with the humidity it felt warmer and defiantly more uncomfortable-Vegas 103 with no humidity. I will take 103 dry heat over any place with high humidity every day of the week.
I can only agree with you eva on what you said about Ortiz. Apparently it’s impossible to win a decision against Floyd. So Ortiz is going to have to knock him out to win or he will get robbed the same way, no question about it.
This is what is so wrong in boxing. There is no way that williams won that fight I dont care whos eyes you watch that fight with. Those judges should be ashamed and stopped from ever judging another fight. Alot of fighters from other countries come here to take on the so called best and when they beat them the judges steal the fights from them. The Zbik fight and the Matysse fight had the same sort of outcomes, its a crime how these foreign fighters keep getting robbed. I agree with boxingisart, williams should be ashamed for saying he won that fight. I cant agree with Bobby A that williams won that first fight with Martinez. It was a close fight but Martinez hurt Williams the cleaner harder punches. This cant keep happening and donald is right alot of fans turn away from the sport because of stuff like this. Its really sad and this is why boxing is turning to sh-t.
i saw willams won only to rounds that was 4 and 5 the rest was lara. lara clearly wan the fight i hope lara fights that dision lara was robed and if ortiz dosnt be care full that can happen to him
Everybody talks about testing fighters now a days. How about we piss test these judges now. This is the worst decision since Ali Funeka vs Joan Guzman I ?? How about Lewis vs Holyfield I ??
Disgraceful ! Here again was the old-style-home-town-favorite decision that for so many years has turned fans away from the sport. Only two scenarios possible with this one, either the judges were bias, or, they were (all three, and very unlikely) just plain stupid. One thing is certain, that states Athletic commission should do an immediate review of the fight, the decision, and the judges themselves. Remember the 1st Lewis/Holyfield fight ? The judges were forced to explain their decision round-per-round, and even though the decision was not itself overturned (a rematch was demanded), the judges (one in particular) was publicly exposed as bought-and-paid-for by the fight promoter (Don King). Even though this contest was not a high profile fight this decision shown nationally needs to be investigated. I don’t believe that boxing will ever totally rid itself of the slime that has brought us these type of unjust outcomes for longer than we can remember, but we must not ever stop fighting to end these injustices. Yell loud boxing fans !
The was not controversial .It was a clear obvious win for Lara .Saying it was controversial is total bilge .
Shame on Williams saying that he won the fight .what at shame seriously .
Williams won the 1st fight with Martinez with controversy and on 2nd fight got knocked out by Martinez!
Now he got controversial win against Lara. Will Williams’ next fight with Lara is a straight win for Lara, a knock out just like Martinez? that would be an LOL!
It was a pretty ugly robbery plain and simple, there’s been worse but Lara deserved this win. Williams needs to change his game if Lara had just a little more power it would have been lights out for Williams. He’s crazy if he wants to fight Martinez again and comes in without some kind of defense against the left hand because he will end up the same way as he did in the second fight. He needs to find his range and fight tall it might make him a bit boring but if he wants to win he has to change it up.
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