Williams earns contentious decision over Martinez

ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey (AP)—Paul Williams showed why he’s one of the most respected fighters in the world with a contentious majority decision over Argentina’s Sergio Martinez in a non-title middleweight bout Saturday.

One of the judges, Pierre Benoist, scored the fight a whopping 119-110 in favor of the American, while Lynne Carter had it 115-113 for Williams. Julie Lederman scored the bout 114-114.

It was Benoist’s scorecard that upset Martinez’s promoter, Lou DiBella.

“Either he’s incompetent—or worse,” DiBella said of Benoist, “because there is no explanation for that score.”

After trading knockdowns in the opening round, the southpaws went back and forth over a dozen spirited rounds.

Martinez, the WBC’s interim junior middleweight titleholder, went down at the 1:57 mark of Round 1 before recovering to knock Williams to the canvas in the final seconds of the round.

The 28-year-old Williams began bleeding over his left eye during the fourth round. The cut was the result of a head butt from Martinez, who often resorted to clinching to overcome his disadvantage in height and reach.

“I don’t complain about the head butts,” said Williams, who went straight to the hospital following the fight to undergo surgery on his eye. “I was getting hit by low blows too. It was going both ways.”

Williams, known for his high punch totals, threw nearly as many power punches (631) as Martinez had total punches (638). Martinez, however, landed 40 percent of his blows, to 31 percent for Williams.

Martinez, who relies more on quickness than power, threw some crunching blows late in the fight. At the time, it appeared the 34-year-old needed to knock out Williams in order to earn the victory.

“They called (Williams) the most feared man in the world, but I didn’t have any fear at all in this bout,” Martinez said.

Lederman scored each of the final three rounds for Martinez, while Benoist had all three in favor of Williams. Benoist scored just one round for the Argentine, leading to a decision that drew mostly boos from the packed ballroom at Boardwalk Hall.

“It was an error. It was a true error,” Martinez said. “We should have a rematch.”

Williams wasn’t opposed to the idea.

“If my managers and promoters want to have a rematch, we’ll have a rematch,” he said.

Saturday’s fight ended a lengthy waiting period for Williams, who was originally supposed to fight middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik in October. Pavlik postponed the bout twice due to an infection on his left hand, forcing Williams to look for a new opponent.

Star welterweight champ Shane Mosley was among those considered before Martinez jumped at the opportunity.

“I don’t look for an easy fight. I look for a hard fight,” said Williams, who weighed in at 157, two pounds lighter than Martinez. “Preparation was tough for this fight because I had to switch training from a left-hander to a right-hander just a few weeks ago.”

Williams has now won five straight fights since suffering his only career loss—a unanimous decision to Carlos Quintana in February 2008 for the WBO welterweight title. Along the way he picked up the WBO’s interim light middleweight belt.

Martinez, meanwhile, had not fought since a controversial draw with Kermit Cintron in February to retain his belt. Martinez had won 28 fights in a row prior to that bout.