MY first experience of a big fight in Atlantic City certainly was not one I will soon forget. The talk among fans and media outside the Boardwalk Hall on the day of the fight was anticipation of another long and exciting repeat of the 2009 fight of the year candidate. Little did we know that this time we would see something even more thrilling, albeit over a shorter time period.
Those who saw Sergio Martinez?s devastating one-punch knockout of Paul Williams on television would have been shocked enough, but to see it right in front of you is something that left me and the rest of the press area residents walking around stunned for the following 20 minutes or so.
My immediate concerns were for Williams, who was knocked out even before he hit the canvas ? and it was certainly a relief when he was able to stand up a couple of minutes later. People at ringside spoke of the similarities with Manny Pacquiao?s one-punch knockout of Ricky Hatton in May 2009.
Amongst the stunned crowd there was jubilation for Martinez fans and nobody at ringside was more delighted than his promoter Lou DiBella who shouted over to us that he has, ?the best fighter in the world?.
One of the more interesting comments post-fight came from Martinez?s trainer Gabriel Sarmiento, who revealed that he was watching a Williams fight on Thursday night and saw a re-occurring mistake which made him change the strategy of the fight. He then boldly predicted that his charge would win by knockout in the second round. Samson Lewkowicz, the manager of Martinez, produced a piece of paper in which Sarmiento had written down his prediction pre-fight.
Who does Martinez fight next is the big question on people?s minds. Many would like to see him against Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather Jnr. However as DiBella asked in the post-fight press conference, ?Do you really think those guys are going to watch this and then say I wanna? fight that guy?? A middleweight bout with Dmitry Pirog would be very interesting but may be difficult to sell as the Russian is not so well known in the United States despite his big knockout of Golden Boy prospect Danny Jacobs earlier this year. Other possibilities at middleweight include Felix Sturm and Gennadiy Golovkin. Dibella stated categorically to the gathered media that he would not let his man move to 168lbs to fight somebody like Lucian Bute, as he considers Martinez to be a 154lbs fighter at his best and had to move to middleweight just to get the best fights. When questioned as to whether he would fight the consensus top two pound-for-pound best fighters in the sport, the Argentine referred to Pacquiao as being too small and a potential fight with him would be a mismatch. Regarding Mayweather, ?possibly? was his response.
Where does Paul Williams go from here? I believe he should take at least six months off before even considering a comeback. This was as crushing a knockout as you will see and not only will he have been physically damaged but time will tell if he will be mentally affected by this loss. Will he be the same come-forward, all-action fighter that we know him to be? Some observers even believe he was damaged by the first fight with Martinez and that he didn?t look the same ?Punisher? in his four-round decision victory over Kermit Cintron back in May. Looking at other examples in the recent past, Jermain Taylor was never the same after he was knocked out in the same arena by Kelly Pavlik and subsequently suffered further heavy inside-the-distance losses. For a fighter like Williams who relies heavily on his previously excellent chin, he will have to adjust his fighting style so that he keeps his hands up more and uses his superior height and reach advantages more than he currently does. However for a man of 29, bad habits are difficult to change as he has been fighting the same way his entire career.
It was good to see the American attend the post-fight press conference and later see him walk along the boardwalk with his team back to his hotel. When Martinez appeared with his team, he was rushed by excited fans and happily posed for photographs with all of them. The 35-year-old from Argentina is clearly enjoying the new-found fame and deserved recognition he is getting after a long career in which only recently he has been able to secure the big fights and prove that he is one of the very best fighters in the world today.
