Paul
Williams earned a majority decision over Sergio Martinez in a 12-round,
middleweight bout on Saturday night.
One of the
judges, Pierre Benoist, scored the fight 119-110 in favor of Williams, while
Lynn Carter had it 115-113 for
Martinez.
Julie Lederman scored the bout 114-114.
After
trading knockdowns in the opening round, the southpaws went back and forth over
a dozen spirited rounds.
The victory
improved Williams to 38-1 with 27 knockouts.
Martinez (44-2-2), the 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.
Williams
weighed in at 157 pounds, while
Martinez
tipped the scales at 159.
On the
undercard, Chris Arreola defeated Brian Minto with a fourth-round TKO in a
heavyweight bout.
Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez are set to fight for the fourth, and final, time on May 22 at the Staples Center according to ESPN.
The fight will air on Showtime. Israel Vazquez who is now with Golden Boy Promotions will be one of the few GBP fighters to fight on that network. The $1.6M purse will be split 50-50 down the line - perhaps Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao should take note as to how these two fighters negotiate, and excite fans.
Richard Schafer said, "We are done. We have agreed on everything. We're excited about it. We have May 22 and the date has been cleared with Showtime and Staples. Staples is really where I think the fight belongs."
Both fighters are willing to fight in March but the devil may be in the details. Freddy Roach believed all along that Manny would agree to a March bout. However he does mention "There's always negotiations, like he (Mayweather) wants 10oz gloves we want 8oz gloves, stuff like that, the weight he wants is 154lb, we want 147, so there's some issues but I think it can be solved,” he said to Sky Sports.
The two most important issues are the Time and the Place. March 13th is the
According to multiple reports across the internet Manny Pacquiao has agreed to fight Floyd Mayweather in principle. Fight News is reporting that Pacquiao “seems satisfied with the offer presented to him by Bob Arum in their meeting this Friday.”
Arum did not give any details about the meeting but did say this, ““You guys can Click for More...
Miguel Cotto is going to retire on his 30th birthday later next year as reported by el Nuevo dia of the Puerto Rican Press.
“I have not seen the fight on TV but I was there,” he says, "I know what I did well and what I didn’t do well. I have thought about it all. We gave the public what they wanted to see, a great fight.”
Regarding his cuts and bruises from the fight he says he’s fully recovered.
“I am good…I was ok during all moments of the fight.”
In an interview with Philippine journalists, Arum said "it has to be March 13 because of this crazy congressional thing.” As reported earlier Pacquiao is running for political office in May 2010. Arum went on to say, “We have everything in place to get it done but we’ve got to start now. There is no reason why Pacquiao wouldn’t do the fight. He trains in the months of January and February and we are not doing a tour and doing only one press conference in New York at Madison Square Garden."
According to a report from TMZ, Boxings Trainer of the Year Freddy Roach is being sued for "assault, battery and infliction of emotional distress." TMZ is reporting that a fight scribe was allegedly pushed around by Roach after writing a piece titled "Sick Roach Misses Conception's Last Workout." Allegedly Roach was not happy about the scribes piece as he went to the clinic and was not really "sick" to miss the workout. Papers have been filed in an LA Court.
