HBO Boxing After Dark, 7.9.11; or A Travesty in Atlantic City

“I don’t know how in the world Paul Williams won the decision… It’s a joke. Paul Williams thought he lost the fight.” – HBO boxing announcer Bob Papa

I’m in shock still.

I watched a fight tonight that was an alright fight, although it was one-sided there was decent action, but clearly won by one particular fighter. This fighter won all but three rounds on my scorecard and two of them I could have seen going to the other guy too. It was a fight where one fighter clearly dominated.

It was a fight where the announcers were openly talking in round 11 about how the ref should stop the fight out of fear of the losing fighter having taken too much punishment for his own good.

As the 12th and final round ended and one fighter jumped and threw his hands up, clearly thinking he won the fight. As well he should. He fought the perfect game plan.

Smiling he stood in the ring as ring announcer, Joe Antonacci, read the judges scorecards.

114-114 a draw

115-114 & 116-114 both for the winner by majority decision Paul Williams!

FYI, he was the fighter I was referring to above as the loser. He was the one I was referring to when the announcers were openly saying the ref should maybe stop the fight for his own good.

Erislandy Lara (the fighter who lost, but should have won) AKA the fighter who I referred to above as the one dominating and winning all but three rounds on my scorecard.

The sad thing about all this is not a damn thing is going to be done about it. It’s ridiculous.

The scorecards in this fight were indescribably dreadful. I wholeheartedly believe that my 8-year-old nephew could have properly scored this fight.

On top of that even, my wife (who knows very little about boxing) even said, “What the f___?!” after hearing the scorecards read telling her that Paul Williams had won the fight.

She added, “Isn’t there anything they can do about this? Because it doesn’t seem fair…”

It’s not fair.

It’s also not like the fight was even close. I mean I have seen fights where I thought Fighter A won, but the decision went to Fighter B and it wasn’t a bad decision because it was a close fighter.

This was not a close fight. It was a decidedly one-sided fight.

Lara had repeatedly landed his left hand flush to Williams face. Williams refused to lift his right hand an inch and so Lara continued to destroy him to the face with the left hand.

In addition to the left hand, Lara exhibited tremendous ring generalship. Constantly moving in to attack then back out before Williams could land more than one punch. He kept Williams off-balance all night.

In the end it just wasn’t enough, apparently, for three extremely misguided judges.

I suppose I will end my rant/vent there and just show my scorecard;

Paul Williams – Erislandy Lara

Rd 1, 10-9 Lara
Rd 2, 10-9 Lara
Rd 3, 10-9 Lara
Rd 4, 10-9 Williams
Rd 5, 10-9 Williams
Rd 6, 10-9 Lara
Rd 7, 10-9 Lara
Rd 8, 10-9 Lara
Rd 9, 10-9 Lara
Rd 10, 10-9 Williams
Rd 11, 10-9 Lara
Rd 12, 10-9 Lara

117-111 for Erislandy Lara!

Judges have it 114-114, 115-114, 116-114 for Paul Williams.

Other action:

Chris Arreola over Friday Ahunanya via UD
Cris Arreola looked to be in the best shape he has probably ever been in, in his entire boxing career.

He easily won a 10 round decision over Friday Ahunanya.

Rico Ramos over Akifumi Shimoda via 7th round TKO
Also, after winning five of the first six rounds and even opening a bad gash over Rico Ramos’ right eye (via accidental headbutt), Akifumi Shimoda took a clean right hand flush from Ramos and that was all she wrote.