Williams Outhustles Margarito to Unanimous Decision
 By Gabriel Montoya at Ringside (July 14, 2007) Doghouse Boxing (Photo © German Villasenor)
Before a sellout crowd, challenger Paul ‘The Punisher’ Williams entered to a rain of boos from the clearly pro Margarito crowd, wearing shiny green trunks with white fringe, smiling and looking very confident.
WBO welterweight champion Antonio ‘The Tijuana Tornado’ Margarito, defending his belt for the eight time, entered to a thunderstorm of applause, cheers and chants of “Mexico” wearing black velvet shorts with Mexico’s red, white and green trim. The exuberant champion was smiling and ready for business and bouncing on his toes.
Both men looked decidedly bigger than they did at the weigh in yesterday. Williams came out strong throwing the jab and left early on often. Margarito worked to the body but looked like the smaller and slower man. Both men worked to the body but Williams go the better of the action as he bounced lefts off Margarito who smiled back at him.
More of the same in the second as Williams was boxing more than expected. Margarito had trouble dealing with his reach and the straight left. Margarito kept smiling but he kept getting tagged. After a furious exchange, Williams landed a hard left inside and Margarito’s attack subsided.
The third was tough to score as Margarito closed the gap and made it an inside fight, landing left hooks to the body. Williams answered back though with hard hooks and straights and ended the round behind his jab.
In the fourth Williams worked very well up and down as he reddened Margarito’s face with his shots. Margarito at this point had mainly invested in body work. Every time Margarito landed to the body, Williams came back with a hard shot upstairs. The crowd booed Williams’s movement but it was giving Margarito fits. A hard right by Margarito rocked Williams but the young challenger came back hard. Margarito seemed to be getting to Williams in the best round thus far. Margarito said in Spanish ”Here ya go, Daddy” as he landed hard shot to Williams gut after another. Things were only heating up.
Round five was a close one again as Margarito landed hard body shots but Williams kept up the activity. Margarito landed two big rights and then slipped. Overall I gave this one to Margarito as he landed the cleaner blows though fewer overall shots.
Williams started off the sixth peppering Margarito with jabs in succession. A hard right from Margarito only served to
make Williams open up with a blistering flurry of 5 or six punches. Both guys took some big shots and walked through them.
Round seven, the round Margarito said he would knockout Williams. Margarito threw everything but the kitchen sink at Williams, but the challenger made it through. Straight rights, uppercuts, hard shots to the body and yet the knockout in round seven was not to be in what was a blistering assault from Margarito in his best round yet.
Round eight the fight turned into a brawl and Margarito began to find a home for his right hand more and more. Williams landed good uppercuts of his own but it seemed more and more Margarito was finding the range and landing hard punishing blows. The crowd once again was on its feet.
Round nine and Williams didn’t seem like he was feeling fine with his hands raised in the corner to get more air. But he came with the jab again and again to start. A big uppercut form Margarito was followed by two big lefts in a row from Williams. Huge counter right from Williams and Margarito didn’t blink. Furious exchanges throughout with both men giving as well as they got. Williams seemed to win out this round with a few more hard shots down the stretch.
Margarito seemed to slow to start the tenth but he came on strong down the stretch attacking Williams body and landing huge uppercuts and hard right hands that seemed to wobble Williams who increasingly only seemed to have a jab as an answer.
Round eleven and Margarito picked up where he left off, as he continued the assault and strafed Williams with right hands and uppercuts. A right hand hurt Williams and Margarito went for broke and ended up opening a cut over a seemingly fading Williams left eye.
Round twelve and both men knew the fight was on the line and Williams wisely boxed on his toes and behind the jab. Both men traded at the bell in a round that Williams clearly won. Doghouse boxing scored it 7-5 Paul Williams.
Judges at ringside scored it 116-112, 115-113 for Paul Williams. The crowd scored it for Margarito.
“He is tough dude,” Willaims said after the fight. “He definitely stunned me a couple times. The plan was to take the early rounds. I definitely had to suck it up late. I want to fight Cotto next. Sign the papers.”
Margarito was less convinced of Williams’ victory. “It was a robbery. I was smiling at him because he wasn’t landing anything. "
If anyone won it was boxing fans as they treated to a great night of pugilism at a high level as well as several fights in the crowd.
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