LAS VEGAS — Paul Williams outworked and overwhelmed former junior middleweight champ Winky Wright to a unanimous decision in a 12-round middleweight bout at Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino. This was Wright's first fight since he suffered a decision loss to Bernard Hopkins in 2007.

Here are retired judge Chuck Giampa's thoughts, notes and scorecard for Saturday's middleweight showdown:

As the bell rang to start the fight between these two left handers, Williams started the action by connecting to Wright's head and used his reach advantage to connect with punches to the head and body. Williams was more active than Wright by scoring constantly while Wright was content to pick his shots more carefully resulting in Williams dictating the action for the full three minutes of the round.

Williams continued to set the pace for rounds two, three, four and five by never slowing down. He used excellent head movement, feinting, bobbing and weaving and connecting with solid punches from different angles—making him a difficult target for Wright. Williams basically gave Wright a boxing clinic by thoroughly dominating the action for the first five rounds.

Wright rebounded in the sixth round and seemed to find his range, in close, by countering well thus allowing Williams to miss more punches than he had in the previous five rounds. Wright connected with good body punches while they fought head to head at close range. Wright was successful in eliminating the reach advantage of Williams.

After six rounds, Williams was ahead on my scorecard 59-55 due to Wright's taking the sixth stanza with his effectiveness.

Williams came on strong in the seventh round and stopped the momentum that Wright mounted in the previous round. Williams went back to his bobbing & weaving and was more active and accurate than Wright. Although both fighters looked tired at this point, Williams caused Wright to miss the target when Wright attempted multiple combinations.

The remaining rounds resulted in Williams taking complete control. Wright looked frustrated as he attempted to grab Williams around the waist when they moved in close; when Wright previously was able to counter well with clean body punches. It was obvious that Williams was too strong, too fast and too accurate for Wright tonight.

Williams lived up to his nickname, “The Punisher”, beginning in the 10th round and continued his assault to the end of the fight. After twelve rounds were completed, the outcome was never in doubt as the scores were read by Michael Buffer. The only remaining questions was whether the judges scored any rounds for Wright.

The official scores were:

Judge Jerry Roth: 119-109 for Williams (awarding Wright only the sixth round)

Judge Robert Hoyle: 119-109 for Williams (awarding Wright only the fifth
round)

Judge Adalaide Byrd: 120-108 for Williams (scoring all twelve rounds for
Williams)

Giampa's score card: 119-109 Williams

Chuck Giampa can be reached at [email protected]