Boxing: What's Hot Now: Paul Williams - Erislandy Lara

Boxing: What's Hot Now These articles that had the largest increase in popularity over the last week Paul Williams - Erislandy Lara 14 Jul 2011, 11:02 am In the ring, Paul Williams clearly lost his junior middleweight bout with Erislandy Lara ... but still won a majority decision on the scorecards in one of the worst decisions in recent years. Williams, in his first bout since suffering a one-punch KO to Sergio Martinez last November, made no technical adjustments whatsoever and absorbed a tremendous number of overhand lefts to the jaw -- exactly the same punch that Martinez landed to knock Williams out cold. If nothing else, Williams proved that there is nothing with his chin or his heart. He was never knocked down and was the agressor throughout, nearly doubling Lara's punch output (1,047 to 530). Unfortunately, Willaims also proved that there's plenty wrong with his defense, with Lara landing a whopping 42% of punches (more than doubling Williams' 19% connect percentage). In fact, Williams was taking so much punishment late in the fight that HBO's announcing team thought a stoppage might be warranted based on the accumulated punishment Williams was taking and the potential long-term damage of taking so many clean shots to the head. Lara, a 28-year-old former Cuban amateur star, fought the latter portion of the bout with a large knot on his left temple but continued to land the harder blows in round after round. Even Williams' corner knew who won the fight, telling their man he needed a knockout in the final round to win the fight. Williams, a bloodied and battered warrior, made it to the final bell on pure guts and was rewarded with incompetent scorecards from judge Don Givens (116-114), Hilton Whitaker II (115-114) and Al Bennett (114-114). Lara deserves to have his performance treated like a win and receive either a rematch with Williams or a title shot against one of the division's elite. Williams - a suddenly old 29 - needs to either replace trainer George Peterson, who provided no strategic value either leading up to or during this fight, or seriously consider retirement. At this point, anyone recommending Williams face either Lara or Martinez in his next bout is not only giving him bad career advice ... they're also acting irresponsibly and dangerously with his long-term health. You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed.