By Don Donatello
In the first fight between Paul Williams and Sergio Martinez, they fought a great fight that some say that Martinez won. If they had fought at Martinez’s home town, the decision would be in reverse order. The score given by the three judges made the fight look like a comfortable win for Williams, but it was far from it. I saw the fight with a slight edge given to Martinez.
Williams’ camp claimed that they underestimated Martinez and trained accordingly as the reason for a close fight. That reasoning would be credible if they did not hesitate for a rematch. If it were just a matter of taking an opponent seriously, Williams’ camp would not have balked at giving Martinez an immediate rematch. Instead of giving Martinez his rematch, William went ahead and fought Kermit Cintron. Williams was awarded the win when Cintron fell through the ropes and fell out of the ring and landed flat on his back. The fight ended in a freakish incident and it did not have the result that Williams was hoping for; he was hoping to redeem himself against Cintron and erase the doubt created by his controversial win against Martinez.
These two fighters are matched well against each other. I don’t see much of change in their second fight. It could go either way but I’m leaning for Martinez to win the rematch of a score of 115-113. Williams did not gather any momentum since they fought each other. On the other hand, Martinez has gained a tremendous amount of momentum and confidence with his domination of Kelly Pavlik for the Middleweight title.
Williams’ high volume offense is limited against quick boxers. Martinez is a very mobile fighter who is quick with his hands and feet. To neutralize Williams’ high volume offense, you must dictate the engagement and pace of the fight. Dart in and score then punch out, back away and dictate the offensive action. The one thing not to do against Williams is to be stationary like Antonio Margarito and Winky Wright. The two opponents that beat and gave Williams problems employed movement and dictated the offensive action and pace.
This time the two combatants will be much more cautious of the other, there will be no knockdown or a knock out. With that said, I believe that the first fight will be better than the second fight. Martinez will not be willing to engage as much, he will utilize more movement, and he will box much more. Williams will not be so aggressive until the later rounds.
The fight could go either way, it’s going to be a close fight like the first. This time Martinez will get the decision; if the fight comes close to the excitement of the first, then there will definitely be a third fight. I predict Martinez win by a close UD or a possible split decision
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