Ringside Boxing Report: Paul Williams – Antonio Margarito
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The main event on Saturday night at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California saw Paul “The Punisher” Williams, 33-0 (24), wrestle the WBO Welterweight title from Antonio Margarito, 34-5 (24). The fight capped off a three bout tv welterweight card, separated by 3,000 miles and broadcast by HBO.
In front of a sold out and wildly pro Margarito crowd, both fighters gave almost everything they had in the bout. There was not only a world title at stake, but also ramifications of even bigger fights down the road. As the fighters entered the ring, the more than 8,000 in attendance were ripe with anticipation and ready for action.
HBO was broadcasting the fight live, but no one expected that both of the undercard fights in California would end early, and the rowdy crowd grew more and more anxious as they waited for bout to begin, which was tied to HBO’s broadcast schedule.
Once things got started, the early rounds belonged entirely to Williams as he stayed on the outside and used his speed and reach advantage to pop his jab almost at will. The taller Williams moved very well and in the second, found the range for the uppercut that he would continue to use throughout the fight.
By the middle rounds, Margarito’s relentless body attack began to take a small toll on Williams and the fight began to shift in his favor, just as Williams had planned. “I knew that he was going to come on late,” said Williams after the bout. But the newly crowned champ stuck with his fight plan and persevered through Margarito’s toughest shots. “He had good power, but I trained for this,” Williams remarked later.
It was also around the sixth round when a large melee broke out in the western section of the stadium. Seeming to stem from the long wait between fights, the raucous crowd began to boil. It took the police and Home Depot Security over three rounds to completely quell the violence outside of the ring. It makes me laugh sometimes when things like this happen. You have two highly trained men fighting a great fight in front of you, and yet when two idiots in the stands begin to throw a few punches, everyone in attendance focused their attention on them.
Meanwhile, the fight inside the ring still raged on. The house was energetic from the opening bell, but it was the last two rounds that pushed them over the top. Margarito had his best round of the fight in the eleventh, landing hard shots that seemed to stun Williams, but “The Punisher” explained that was not that case. “I was moving a lot and when he hit me, it might look like I was hurt because I was off balance,” said Williams.
Williams came out of the corner for the twelfth round with the same energy that he displayed early in the fight, popping his jab and finding great range to land his right hook. The newly crowned champ said after the fight that the final round is what he felt won it for him.
The judge’s scores were unanimous, 116-112 and 115-113 twice and the new WBO Welterweight Champion was crowned. The hometown fans did not like the decision at all, as a chorus of boos began to ring out loudly. A quick poll of the ringside reporters had it about sixty-forty for Williams with a few draws thrown in. SaddoBoxing scored the fight 115-112 for Williams. But no matter how the press row scored the fight, they all had the exact number, 115-112; it was close.
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Margarito felt that he won the fight. “I really do feel that this was a robbery,” he said at the post fight press conference. “I hit him, I pressured, and I just didn’t get the decision. I did my job. I will do a rematch, as long as Bob Arum is involved. I feel that I would get robbed again with Goossen.”
At the post fight press conference, both Dan Goossen and Bob Arum threw out a slew of names that both men could fight in the future. Fighters like Cotto, Mosley, Cintron and Mayweather were all brought up and it seems to Arum that the fight with Cotto, which seemed a done deal if Margarito won, is still primed to go forward.
The promoters agreed that the welterweight division is one of the hottest in the game and that there are a more than a handful of big money fights available for both men.
A big announcement was also reported with regards to the hot weight class. Arum also stated that Oscar de la Hoya was considering a jump back to welterweight for a possible fight with Ricky Hatton. And with the win, it is possible that this leaves Paul Williams in worse shape in terms of getting a fight, than he was before the bout.
The untelevised undercard in Carson was short lived. The first bout featured former Olympic Gold Medalist Andre Ward, 13-0 (8), who scored a quick three round TKO against a tough challenger Francisco Diaz, 16-2 (8). Ward looked sharp and moved very well, winning the first two rounds easy before catching Diaz with a solid right that put him on the canvas. Diaz tried to get up but his legs were gone and the ref halted the bout at 2:59 of the third. When asked about the knock out punch the prospect said, “That felt beautiful. It was like hitting the sweet spot on a baseball bat.” Ward said he was prepared to go all eight rounds and thought that it might. “He’s a tough kid, so I didn’t know if he was going to fight on or not.”
The special attraction fight prior to the main event showed another good young prospect that completely overmatched his opponent. Unbeaten heavyweight Cristobal Arreola, 21-0 (19), defeated Derek Berry, 12-9-1 (5), by first round TKO. It was an easy contest for the young fighter from Los Angeles, “I didn’t expect a tough fight. I have sparred with this guy before. I thought that it would go two or three rounds.”
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On a side note, the over 8,000 in attendance was a record crowd for boxing at the Home Depot Center and Goossen loved it. “If we can continue to draw crowds like this, I would love to have more fights here. But I am not going to put on a fight here for 3,000 people.”