Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey– Paul Williams (40-2, 27 Kos) notched a controversial majority decision over Erislandy Lara (15-1-1, 10 KOs) in one of the most horrendously bad decisions in recent history.
Even over the first six rounds, the former Cuban amateur star, Lara, found his rhythm and began to cleanly and clearly outwork an earnest, but very vulnerable Williams.
By the tenth round, Lara’s clear dominance with a punishing left hand had the HBO commentating team looking for a stoppage. While the fight wasn’t as dangerously one-sided as the broadcast crew was portraying it, Lara was pretty much in full control throughout the second half of the bout, sweeping rounds seven through twelve on The Boxing Tribune’s unofficial card.
The judges obviously saw a different fight as Al Bennett scored it a 114-114 draw, Hilton Whitaker scored it 115-114 for Williams, and Donald Givens turned in a 116-114 decision, also in favor of Williams. The Boxing Tribune scored the bout 117-111 in favor of Erislandy Lara.
On the televised undercard, Rico Ramos (20-0, 11 KOs) captured the WBA super featherweight title by stopping Japan’s Akifumi Shimoda (23-3-1, 10 KOs) in the seventh round of their contest.
Behind on all three judges’ scorecards, Ramos connected with a perfectly-timed left hand that dropped Shimoda and rendered the defending champion unable to continue.
Off-TV results: Chris Arreola (33-2, 28 KOs) won a unanimous ten-round decision over Friday Ahunanya (24-8-3, 13 KOs) and Jhonny Gonzalez (49-7, 43 KOs) successfully defended his WBC featherweight title by stopping Tomas Villa (23-8-4, 14 KOs) in the fourth round.
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