By Kevin Adams
Yeah folks! One of the most anticipated fights of 2010 is upon us, the rematch of the classic 2009 clash between Paul Williams and Sergio Martinez. The first fight ended in 12 round split decision that went to Williams, a fair call but was mired in controversy as judge Pierre Benoit idiotically scored the fight 118-110 for Williams.
This time around Sergio comes into the fight holding the WBC middleweight belt and coming off giving Kelly Pavlik a complete and thorough ass kicking. Martinez, hailing from Argentina is 36 but hasnt missed a beat and is one of boxing's most avoided men, he is a slick southpaw with great movement, a great defensive fighter with great ability inside the ring. He is one of the 5 best fighters in the world P4P in my opinion and is riding a great string of performances. He is one of boxing's best talents at the moment
On the other hand you have the freakish Paul Williams, why freakish? Well let me explain, Williams from Aiken, S.C is a 6'1 anamoly with a 82-inch reach and normally throws over 100 punches a round. He stormed onto the scene with his defeat of Antonio Margarito in 2007 to win the welterweight championship, and began an ascent up the boxing world. Williams has campaigned from 147 all the way up to 160 looking for fights as he along with Martinez is avoided in boxing circles. Paul is high pressure fighter using his reach and punching output to wear down fighters. Williams defense is his offense and is quite the entertaining fighter to watch.
The first fight was a slugfest from start to finish, both fighters hit the canvas in the first round and kept it up. Paul used his pressure to pile up early rounds, but Martinez adjusted in the middle of the fight and started to tag Williams the rest of the way. A back and forth affair that was boxing at it's best, after nearly a year wait and some hassling we finally have the rematch.
As far as the fight goes, Williams has been in this situation before. In 2008 he lost his title in a 12 round decision to Carlos Quintana, Quintana a similar fighter to Martinez used the same style to beat Williams using movement and beating Williams to the punch all night. After the first fight a rematch came 4 months later, Williams adjusted to Quintana and blew him away early knocking him out in the 1st round. So maybe we could see a situation similar to the second Quintana fight, Paul may adjust and be ready for what Sergio brought in the first fight and capitalize on that. Williams was routinely caught by punches all night after leaving himself open he has to fix that or he will pay the price.
Martinez will come into the fight supremely confident, he feels (along with many others) he won the fight and he wanted the rematch badly. Martinez will most likely look to do what he did in the first fight and frustrate and keep Williams off balance and using Williams aggression against him. Sergio though cannot allow Paul to bank in a lot of rounds or he will be forced to play catchup the rest of the way. However, I would not be surprised if Martinez looks to take the fight to Williams and play the aggressor though, Williams defense is still a weak point although his chin is very strong.
This should be another close fight, and hopefully will be half as exciting as the first match. Boxing needs more bouts like this and fighters like these two hands down. I will pick Paul Williams to win this fight by a close decision I think he will land more shots and pile up points, if he keeps his head and hands up he should be able to pull out the win over a Sergio Martinez who is going to bring hell into the ring.
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