Paul Williams vs Sergio Martinez II

[Autobarn]

martinez gets better and better. great fighter. who would have believed he'd have all this success as a middleweight. who thought he'd ever be a middleweight at all? this guy has been matched brutally and it's great to see it all paying off.

glad to see williams get swept aside.

martnez for fighter of the year. hope to see some middleweight contenders get brave and challenge him. not a superstar division, but some solid fights.

[Datsue]

I love you Sergio Gabriel Martinez, & wish to bear your man-babies.

That is all.

[Old bones Ian]

Richard Williams dropping him twice and pushing him hard is looking very impressive these days

You're right Jeff, but Martinez has clearly just kept on improving leaps and bounds. I remember watching him when he lost to Margarito but look at their differing fortunes now...

yeah but any win by Margarito is tainted by the handwrap scandal, even back then it could of been a factor

[Deserter]

Richard Williams dropping him twice and pushing him hard is looking very impressive these days

You're right Jeff, but Martinez has clearly just kept on improving leaps and bounds. I remember watching him when he lost to Margarito but look at their differing fortunes now...

yeah but any win by Margarito is tainted by the handwrap scandal, even back then it could of been a factor

Not beyond the realms of possibility Ian, but Martinez then was a lot flashier and was nowhere near as sturdy and powerful. He was a boy then in boxing terms.

[15829]

gutted for williams caught with a great shot, i expected this to go the distance with williams edging out the descion wouldnt mind there being a trilogy

[damianhucker1]

The way williams hit the floor was sickening , face first with a completely vacant look in his eyes , last time i felt genuinely worried for the fighter like that was audley getting sparked by sprott

[hitman_hatton1]

good luck to martinez.

just hope he gets a big fight out of it.

doubt whether floyd or pac will venture that far north though.

super 6 winner perhaps?

williams will be back.

he should go to light middle and chase a cotto fight.

[hitman_hatton1]

glad to see williams get swept aside.

why?

williams is a stand up guy tbh.

except for last night.

[Datsue]

glad to see williams get swept aside.

why?

williams is a stand up guy tbh.

except for last night.

Excerpted from my personal message on Saturday to Counter-Puncher of this parish, here's why I don't like him...

I farking can't stand Williams (who lest we forget weighed something like twelve & a half stone in the ring when he fought Quintana): he fights bravely sure, but if he was six inches shorter he'd be getting knocked out on ESPN cards from Florida against former IBF title challengers. He's just another freakish example of how top-level boxing can be skewed these days by advances in drying-out & rehydratiion technology rather than, say, something boring & quaintly old-fashioned such as innate ability (see also: Mr M.A. Cotto). I even thought Kermit was having fun landing the right hand against him until he decided he'd rather take up crazy diving than fighting.

I've watched & rewatched the first one (which was a true classic, the styles meshed so well) & all I can see is Williams outworking my boy again, unfortunately. Martinez just doesn't hit quite hard enough to take advantage of Williams' defence (which seems to consist of, uh, being eleven feet tall) to the point where he can stop him, & for all his insane engine, won't have the legs at 35 to pick-pocket the fvcker. Which is a shame, obviously.

I am looking forward to it, however, & I hope that afterwards he fights someone who can knock PWill's freakishly small head into the third row.

I have not been happier about being proved wrong since last Saturday night.

[whiskey]

Maybe the hype around Williams dies down now.

Even the HBO team and especially "free lunch" Manny Steward had their Williams flag out.

Terrific performance by Martinez and that shot was planned definitely.

[hitman_hatton1]

so u hate tommy hearns as well then.

give lanky people a chance.

[Datsue]

so u hate tommy hearns as well then.

give lanky people a chance.

Nope, you are (wilfully?) misunderstanding me. Tommy didn't rehydrate & come to the ring fifteen/twenty pounds heavier than his opponents. The comparison is completely invalid, because all Williams wins with is physical advantages. He's as skilled as a brick.

Hearns had an arsenal of punches, was a brilliant boxer & a numbing puncher. He did not rely on being three divisions bigger than his opponent to win; he had skills & power too, things which Williams doesn't have.

[el_grande_mauro_mina]

My claim to fame was watching Sergio Martinez in the FAB stadium in Buenos Aires back in early 2002 and watching him put a 10 round exhibition against - oooh forgot his name - he came out of the dressing room and his mum in the balcony above threw a load of confetti onto him from a black bin bag and all his family started chanting his name and cheering. Outside, after the fight he was milling around in a light blue tracksuit - should have got a photo of him there and then!

[Final round]

I was a bit gutted that fight was warming up nicely.....but what the hell that was a godlike punch.

[PaddyBoxing]

Great win for Martinez. Looks like he would have won the fight anyway as he won the first round clearly.

[tonyevs]

Sweet punch

Very surprised to see Williams so reckless though ...

[SweetLikeSugar]

To get so much power from a punch thrown at such a wide, awkward angle is amazing.

Would Martinez make light-middle comfortably now? I'd love to see him v Manny.

[MightyWarrior]

Wow never thought Williams would be taken out like that, what a shot - KO of the year ?

Doesn't anyone find it strange that Williams lands face first on the canvas, eyes glazed and staring at nothing, and the ref decides to give him the full 10 count ?

Was he expecting him to get up? And where do they find these dumb referees?

[SweetLikeSugar]

Wow never thought Williams would be taken out like that, what a shot - KO of the year ?

Doesn't anyone find it strange that Williams lands face first on the canvas, eyes glazed and staring at nothing, and the ref decides to give him the full 10 count ?

Was he expecting him to get up? And where do they find these dumb referees?

Was a bit wierd wasn't it? It was pretty clear that as soon as he hit the deck he wasn't getting back up

[banjo]

Wow never thought Williams would be taken out like that, what a shot - KO of the year ?

Doesn't anyone find it strange that Williams lands face first on the canvas, eyes glazed and staring at nothing, and the ref decides to give him the full 10 count ?

Was he expecting him to get up? And where do they find these dumb referees?

Same place as they found this one I guess

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UePW3w3_k9M

[whiskey]

Was a bit wierd wasn't it? It was pretty clear that as soon as he hit the deck he wasn't getting back up

He was the HBO house fighter

[Cyclops]

Martinez is a beast. I felt sorry for Williams because I really like him, but I liked both fighters. The first one was a great fight so I was just excited about watching the rematch and didn't really care who won. Wow. I never expected THAT to happen though. Like a few people have said, the most shocking KO since Manny-Hatton (where for a second I thought Hatton was dead) I thought it was shaping up to be great fight too, they were both really putting it on the line to make it another war for the fans, but I guess that's what can happen if two fighters tear into each other like that. For the record I thought Williams won the first round on workrate and landed more, even though Sergio's punches seemed harder and more accurate. It was very competitive up to the KO, so I think there's definitely grounds for a part 3, although I think Martinez should get another marquee name next (I'm hesitant to say Cotto because I really like Cotto, and I think Martinez would smash him and retire him but... Well Cotto is the obvious choice.)

Surely this sets up Williams v Pavlik? The make or break redemption fight for both fighters, the fight we wanted to see in the first place. You'd think there's no way Pavlik is going to duck Williams now with such an obvious weakness exposed.

Just out of interest, where do you think this puts Martinez in the P4P rankings? Third?

[Datsue]

I'm fascinated by that final shot, as essentially Martinez was looking past Williams as he threw it - would love to know whether it was deliberate deception in terms of luring Williams with his eyes/body movement to distract him from the bomb he was throwing, or whether it was just a 'hail Mary'?

Deliberate timing. In the first fight, he did exactly the same thing, dozens of times. I have read that "Martinez closed his eyes nur-nur-nur" on several forums now, & wish to put forward this rebuttal here.

So. Here is a highlight vid of SGM. The last seventy seconds or so is concerned with the first Williams-Martinez fight.

If you look at the video, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRFL3SEPESM

You can see that 1:02 in, Sergio nails him with it. If you maximise the video, you can see he does it again at 1:30, & the angle is such you can see how he twists his whole body out the way as he starts the shot. He's just so fecking confident that Williams is physically incapable of moving his head that he looks away. At 1:33, you can see him do it again in slow motion. At 1:46, he does it again.

Remember: this is the first fight, from December last year. The punch tonight was in no way lucky shot, unless Martinez got lucky about a hundred times a year ago.

If you watch the end of the first Marquez-Diaz fight, the big right hand counter shot that smashes Diaz to pieces (not the follow-up flurry that actually sent him down, the big overhand right that sent his legs in different directions & had him looking for a place to fall), Marquez throws that in exactly the same way, but 'cos he's orthodox it's this shot's mirror image.

Two of my favourite active fighters, 'cos they throw punches like this. Their timing's so good, their relative body placement so spot on, they can throw a shot without looking & people walk on to them. It's just that last night Martinez decided not to back up as he did in the first fight, but to meet Williams head-on, confident he was going to do more damage to Williams than WIlliams could possibly do to him.

Which resulted in all the clinches, & Williams lying face-first on the canvas.

[banjo]

Was a bit wierd wasn't it? It was pretty clear that as soon as he hit the deck he wasn't getting back up

He was the HBO house fighter

Aye it happens, I read a while back that Lloyd Honeyghan KO'd a guy in Italy(I presume it was against future champ Rosi as that's the only fight in Italy I can see) who was flat out for well more than the 10 count yet the ref made it last as long as possible.

[orbtastic]

Yeah, it's not as bad as that but it's clear Rosi isn't getting up, spreadeagled on the bottom rope but the ref doesn't look like he wants to count him out.