on december 5, 2009 paul williams fought sergio martínez in a war of a twelve-round main event. in the first round martinez was knocked down due to bad balance and a grazing left hand that landed just below the ear. in the final seconds of the 1st round though martinez scored a knockdown of his own over williams. the next two rounds were heavily in martinez's favor as he hit williams with barrages of counter punches. after martinez was seemingly won the first 3 rounds, rounds 4-7 showed williams coming back effectively landing hard lefts to the head of martinez. in rounds 8-10 martinez again confused williams with using different varieties of punches, including straight lead lefts to the body followed by right hooks to the head and straight lefts to the face. the final 2 rounds showed much fatigue in martinez and williams but both warriors fought through to the end, although williams seemed to win both of the last 2 rounds by being the far more active boxer (while the punching exchanges were very closely contested during those final 2 rounds as well), which would ultimately prove to be the difference and as a result of having far superior activity during those final 2 rounds, williams won a close majority decision over martinez. the judges scored the fight 114-114, 115-113 for williams and 119-110 for williams, thus making williams emerge as the majority decision winner.