Lara seeks a rematch with Williams

The promoter of Erislandy Lara began lobbying in earnest Monday for a rematch with Paul Williams.

Williams’ majority decision over Lara on Saturday night in Atlantic City, N.J., on HBO was widely criticized after Lara seemed to dominate the fight. The scores were 114-114, 115-114 and 116-114 in favor of Williams.

"When you see a young undefeated star convincingly win almost every round against one of the best fighters in the world and then have the judges take the fight away from him, it's very disturbing, not only as his promoter, but also as a boxing fan," Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, said in a press release. "The CompuBox statistics alone indicate who the winner of this fight was. Lara landed 42 percent of his total punches to Williams 19 percent.  Further indication comes when examining the power punch statistics as Lara landed half of his power shots to almost one of every five that Williams landed. 

“We hope that Williams and his promoter, Dan Goossen, will give Lara a much-deserved rematch to settle the controversy that has erupted since Saturday night's decision.  If Williams chooses not to fight Lara again, Erislandy is ready to fight anyone, anywhere and at any time and we will make sure that he gets the opportunities he deserves in the wake of his spectacular performance in Atlantic City."

Lara was baffled after the fight.

"It was a good fight, but I don't know what the judges saw," he said.  "I definitely want the rematch with Williams."

Lara, who fought much of the fight with a knot on his head, suffered a small facial fracture apparently as a result of a clash of heads and will not be able to train for six to eight weeks.