Williams v. Cintron: A Tough Call That Fizzled...

As I prepare to watch this fight, I cannot decide who to call it for. Williams is relentless, tough and long, while Cintron hits like a ton of bricks and can box. Until Carlos Quintana fought a perfect counterpunchers fight against Williams, I didn't think he could be beat...and when they rematched Quintana's magic was gone and Williams knocked him out quickly. Meanwhile, only Margarito consistently has had Cintron's number, taking him into deep water and knocking him out twice (as I recall, though Cintron may have survived to a decision loss the second time), but to my thinking those losses to Margarcheato are called forever into question.

That said, it can't be overlooked that Williams outworked the workrate Margarito when he fought him, pre-scandal, decisioning the one fighter who twice defeated Cintron. I think that gives Williams the edge, both mentally and physically. I call it for Williams by attrition in the 11th of 12 rounds.

Round One - Williams is clearly taller with a reach advantage. Williams lands cleanly and the HBO crew is seeing Cintron successfully countering though I don't see it as much. And with a minute and a half, Cintron lands cleanly. Cintron IS waiting to throw that right hand. Williams is not going workrate, which is his calling card. Larry Merchant is attributing that to Cintron's taking it away, but whatever the cause, it's clear. It's a close round that I call for Williams, though it easily could go the other way. Williams up 10-9.

Round Two - Cintron is in pure coutnerpunching mode and he's not even throwing except in response. The lower workrate, according to the HBO crew, is attributable to Williams' respect for Cintron's power. Cintron is trying to time Williams with a big game-changing punch. With a minute left, he's not finding it and this leaves it as a miss, miss and counter miss type of fight and Williams has the round on aggressiveness only with 20 seconds to go. Nothing changes and Cintron did nothing but miss counterpunches to Williams' missed punches. Unimpressive, but close and again to Williams for me, making it 20-18 for Williams.

Round Three - HBO unofficial scorer Harold Lederman has the rounds split 1-1, with the last one for Williams which is fair. Williams begins stepping it up and Cintron's corner told HIM to pick up the aggression. Cintron is again purely countering and waiting for one big punch. Williams again not fighting workrate, but Cintron is doing nothing effective and neither is taking risks. Feinting, missing and moving. Williams lands the first and only real punch with ten seconds left and takes the round, going up 30-27 on my card.

Round Four - Now Williams takes a risk and both fighters connect and it gets interesting...and then the fighters tangle and both go down, but Williams is in the ring and Cintron seems to almost vault himself out of the ring through the ropes!? Okay the replay shows Cintron didn't deliberately throw himself out, but he also seemed not to try to catch himself. He appears immobilized outside the ring and a full minute passes and a gurney is brought in to cart him away. Cintron isn't even trying to get up or roll over. I can't help but wonder why he's not trying to get up and Larry Merchant comments that both fighters will get paid, but noone else will leave happy. It seems very odd to me that Cintron is not even trying. They've put a neck brace on Cintron now, though I saw him move his legs and arms.

Now they're going to the judge's scorecards because it's gone three rounds??? ...and they are counting the fourth, which lasted all of thirty or so fighting seconds. Unreal. I'm thinking that this favors Williams, interestingly enough. Williams ducked a Cintron punch and bulled into Cintron, then fell away and Cintron actually wasn't pushed out of the ring as a result of that as much as Cintron seems to have either lost his balance or attempted to regain it by throwing himself out of the ring between the second and top ropes and in any case, vaulted out onto a scorer's table, over a monitor and prone face-down onto the floor. He's not moved and he's strapped into an elaborate head-immobilizing gurney and carted away.

39-37, 40-36, 36-40 split decision for Paul Williams and one of the three judges scored ALL FOUR ROUNDS for Cintron??? That too is unreal. That judge wasn't watching anyone but Cintron. I guess I would have called the last round for Williams as much because through the first 30 seconds or so of the fourth, it was Williams' aggression that caused it to turn into a fight in what there was of the round. Another replay view seems to show Cintron almost jumping through the ropes. Gotta love boxing...here's a result I've never seen, caused by something I've never seen before. And we see Cintron waving his arms around as they load him, head immobilized, into the ambulance. He wanted to continue fighting, but was told by the doctors that he could not? And we accept this from his manager? or was it his promoter? Fishy. Well...that's boxing...