Martínez vs Williams II 2010: The Disputed First Fight and the One-Punch Knockout in Atlantic City

On 20 November 2010, inside Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall, Sergio Martínez settled an argument that had lingered for almost a year. Paul Williams had beaten him there on a disputed majority decision in December 2009; in the rematch, one left hand in the second round ended the debate, left Williams face down on the canvas and later earned The Ring magazine's Knockout of the Year.

Two Southpaws Nobody Wanted to Fight

By the end of the 2000s, Sergio Martínez and Paul Williams shared an awkward reputation: both were left-handers, both were dangerous, and both were hard to match. Williams, born in Augusta, Georgia, in 1981, stood 6 feet 2 inches with a 78-inch reach, unusual dimensions for a man who had held the WBO welterweight title twice. He fought under the nickname "The Punisher" and threw punches in volume from long range.

Martínez came from Avellaneda in the Buenos Aires province, born in 1975, and had turned professional in December 1997. His route to the top had been slow. He had collected regional belts and an IBO light middleweight title before winning the WBC interim light middleweight belt in October 2008, and he was elevated to full WBC champion at 154 pounds in May 2009. When the two southpaws were paired on HBO for 5 December 2009, Martínez was the outsider: Tim Starks of Queensberry Rules reported him as a 4-1 underdog.

December 2009: Two Knockdowns in the First Round

The first meeting, also held at Boardwalk Hall, did not wait long to catch fire. Both men went down in the opening round. Williams scored first, although contemporary accounts describe Martínez's fall as more a matter of poor balance than real damage, with a glancing left landing as he was off his feet. Late in the same round Martínez answered with a knockdown of his own, and this time the man on the floor appeared genuinely shaken.

What followed was a twelve-round swing of momentum. Starks's report has Williams taking control in the middle rounds as Martínez tired, the Argentine rallying in the championship rounds, and Williams doing the more effective work in an exhausted final round. Wikipedia's summary of the pair's rivalry notes that Martínez was judged to have landed the cleaner shots while Williams threw and landed more in total, which explains why the bout could be scored either way.

The 119-110 Card That Defined the Decision

Close fights can produce split opinions, but one of the three scorecards went far beyond that. One judge had it level at 114-114, a second scored it 115-113 for Williams, and the third, Pierre Benoist, turned in 119-110 for Williams, giving Martínez only a single round. That made it a majority decision for Williams, and it was the wide card, rather than the result itself, that drew most of the criticism. Starks called the bout a Fight of the Year-calibre war and labelled the 119-110 score absurd. Many observers left Atlantic City believing Martínez had done enough, and the call for a second fight began almost immediately.

Martínez Climbs to Middleweight Champion

The loss did not slow Martínez down. On 17 April 2010, back at Boardwalk Hall, he moved up to face Kelly Pavlik and won a unanimous decision, surviving a seventh-round knockdown to take the WBC, WBO, The Ring and lineal middleweight championships. The WBO belt did not last: about eight weeks later the organisation stripped him after he missed its deadline to declare whether he would stay at middleweight or return to light middleweight.

So when the rematch was made, Martínez held the WBC and Ring middleweight titles, and the setting was again Boardwalk Hall. According to Wikipedia, both fighters were rated among the top six pound-for-pound boxers in the world going in. The Sweet Science's report described the bout as contested at a 158-pound catchweight with the WBC title on the line.

20 November 2010: One Left Hand

The rematch lasted barely four minutes. Early in the second round the two southpaws let their left hands go at almost the same moment. Martínez's arrived first. Williams was throwing a left of his own, with his right hand low, when the Argentine's punch landed on his chin. The effect was instant: Williams pitched forward and landed face-first on the canvas, and he was counted out where he lay. The official time was 1:10 of round two.

Accounts do not agree on what to call the shot. Wikipedia's article on the rematch describes a short left hook, its biography of Williams calls it a short left cross, and The Sweet Science wrote of an overhand left. What every source agrees on is the result: a single counterpunch, timed against an incoming left, ended the fight. One discrepancy in the record should also be flagged. Williams's Wikipedia page phrases the stoppage time as "2:02 left in the 2nd round", which does not match the 1:10 elapsed time reported by The Sweet Science and others.

It was the first time Williams had been stopped. He got up after a short while with clear eyes, according to The Sweet Science, and he did not dispute what had happened. "I just got caught with a punch," he told reporters, as quoted by The Sweet Science. Martínez, now 46-2, talked about resting and weighing offers, and he named Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao as opponents he would welcome at a catchweight.

Knockout of the Year and a Fighter of the Year Case

The punch quickly became the reference knockout of 2010. The Ring magazine named it its Knockout of the Year, following Manny Pacquiao's second-round stoppage of Ricky Hatton, which had won the award the year before. Martínez's year, the Pavlik upset followed by the Williams knockout, also brought him Fighter of the Year honours from The Ring and from the Boxing Writers Association of America. The Sweet Science nominated the finish for its own Knockout of the Year award as well.

What Came After

The two careers then went in very different directions. Martínez's run as WBC champion soon ran into politics: the WBC stripped him after HBO declined to broadcast a mandatory defence against its interim champion, Sebastian Zbik. He kept the Ring title and fought on until June 2014, when he lost his middleweight championship to Miguel Cotto, and he retired in June 2015 at the age of 40 because of knee injuries.

Williams fought only twice more. In July 2011 he won a heavily disputed majority decision over Erislandy Lara that led to the suspension of the judges, and his final bout took place on 18 February 2012. On 27 May 2012 he crashed his motorcycle at roughly 75 miles per hour, and the spinal injury left him paralysed. His record closed at 41 wins and 2 losses, with the November 2010 knockout standing as the only time he was stopped.

Sources

• Sergio Martínez vs. Paul Williams II, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
• Paul Williams (boxer), Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
• Sergio Martínez (boxer), Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
• The Ring magazine Knockout of the Year, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
• Martinez Promised Kayo and Delivered: Williams Counted Out in 2nd Rd, The Sweet Science, November 2010
• Paul Williams Decisions Sergio Martinez and Chris Arreola Knocks Out Brian Minto, Tim Starks, Queensberry Rules, December 2009