By James Slater – It’s officially on: The rematch of 2009’s Fight of The Year (according to a good many judges), Sergio Martinez Vs. Paul Williams II. All signed and sealed for November 20th, the potential barnburner will take place at The Boardwalk in Atlantic City, the scene of the first fight between the Argentine and the man from Georgia, USA.
According to ESPN.com, the fight will be for Martinez’ world middleweight title, but the two fighters have agreed to meet at a catch-weight of 157-pounds. The exciting match-up will be formally announced at a press conference in New York this Thursday in New York. Also of interest to fans planning to watch the fight on T.V, the return clash will go out live on regular HBO; not on pay-per-view..
As great as the initial meeting between the two southpaws was – with both men hitting the canvas, only to get up and war right to the end of the thrilling December 2009 12-rounder – part-two has a lot of fans and experts pumped up and excited. Then there’s the two warriors themselves.
To this day, a good number of people feel the majority decision win “The Punisher” received was undeserved, and for this reason alone the lanky lefty who has been compared to the great Tommy Hearns has sufficient motivation to do it again. For his part, Martinez – who won the world 160-pound title by out-pointing Kelly Pavlik in his fight after Williams – says he fears no-one, and that he will rumble with whoever his promoters put in front of him. Reportedly, Martinez, 45-2-2(24) agreed to Williams’ 157-pound catch-weight demand, simply because he wanted the big fight so much.
The first fight was very much a short notice affair for both guys, and Williams, six years the younger man at age 29, blamed his tough night against the Argentine on lack of full preparation. Williams had been training for an orthodox fighter (ironically, Pavlik, who instead faced Martinez), and he says the late switch affected him. Maybe this is the reason Williams came so close to losing, or maybe Martinez is the slightly better fighter. We will get our answer on Nov. 20th.
Williams, 39-1(27) will have to look a lot better than he did in his last fight, that’s for sure. Appearing to struggle a little and also get caught a few times, in his disappointing 4-round TD win over Kermit Cintron in May, Williams looked a little sloppy, with his timing not all it could be. Then, of course, we had Cintron’s “dive” from the ring, ending the fight just as it was warming up. Both men claim they would have gone on to get a KO win, but we will never know. Whatever, Williams, and Martinez, had better be in tip-top shape so as to be able to go 12 hard rounds in November!