Judah scores shocking upset!
Decisions Williams en route to capture WBA belt!
Moments ago, previously unbeaten WBA interim welterweight champion Paul Williams lost his crown in his first title defense against experienced Zab Judah by a close majority decision. It was a close, tactical fight but Williams did not do enough in the early round. He woke up to rally in the middle of the bout but Judah came back strong in the championship round to close the show. Scores were 114:114 even, 115:113 and 116:114 in favor of Judah, who claims the first title of his career and moves to 18-14. “He was the better man tonight, he deserved the win”, Williams told the stunned press afterwards. “I did a huge mistake, I overlooked him. I told you before that I need to beat guys like him to reach my goals. Maybe I’m just not good enough but I feel I just had an off night. I believe I can do better, I can beat Judah. But tonight, I didn’t. He outboxed me, it was close but anything but this decision would be wrong. He did a great job. I didn’t live up to the expectations. But I will be back. Like I said, I’m pretty sure I had an off-night, so I hope Zab will take the challenge I’m gonna issue right now. Fight me again. I gave you a shot at a world title, now give me the rematch I and everybody else deserves. He is a great guy, a good fighter. I believe we will do it again. I hope we will. I want to prove that it was a fluke. And he wants to prove that it wasn’t. So lets find out who is right.” “Zab did a really good job but so did Paul. But he just did not do enough. I have never seen Zab that strong, and Paul that weak”, said legendary promoter Don Balla. “The fight was close, he got the win. A good decision, that’s for sure. This reminds me of the first fight against Tajbert. Paul was supposed to win, was a big favorite. He had a terrible night, like everybody can have sometimes. It was a draw, although the judges screwed Paul, which was not the case today. We arranged a re- and a rubbermatch. Before both fights, Paul trained his ass off like never before. And he won both by knockout. I completly trust in him. If he says it was just an off-night, it was just an off-night. And he will be back to show that to world. I already talked to Judah’s promotional team about a rematch and in case of a close victory for Paul a rubbermatch. They seemed interested, clearly, as this could be a big money pay-per-view bout. We hope we can do a immediate rematch. But than, there is no room for another off-night for Paul. And he knows that. After doing the same mistaked twice now, I hope he learned his lesson. When he is focused, he is unbeatable. When not, yeah, you saw what happened. But I trust in him, in his character, in his abilities. He is a warrior and he will come back stronger from this.”