By Lem Satterfield
The promoter of southpaw three-time champion Paul Williams said that southpaw junior middleweight Erislandy Lara should first give a rematch to Carlos Molina before considering a return bout with Williams, who was the winner of Saturday night's conversial majority decision over Lara at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.
Ringside judges Al Bennett, Hilton Whitaker and Don Givens, respectively, scored the fight at 114-114, 115-114, and, 116-114, the last two having it in favor of Williams (40-2, 27 knockouts), a decision that was roundly booed by the crowd and criticized by the media in general.
The 28-year-old Lara (15-1-1, 10 KOs) was coming off of March's disputed draw with Molina (19-4-2, six KOs), who won a unanimous decision victory over two-time champion Kermit Cintron (32-4-1, 28 KOs) on Saturday night.
"Look, we're looking to move on as far as I'm concerned," said Goossen. "Here's what you've got to do. Just take a look at the replay and look at it from a different standpoint."
Lara's promoter, Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer, issued a statement on Monday requesting a rematch for Lara against 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," said Schaefer in a statement.
"The CompuBox statistics alone indicate who the winner of this fight was. Lara landed 42 percent of his total punches to Williams 19 percent," said Schaefer. "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."
But Goossen said Lara should rematch Molina. Incidentally, there are industry rumors that Williams' camp is interested in facing Molina next.
"What I would do if I was Richard is that I would look to give Carlos Molina a shot, because obviously, most people felt that Molina beat Lara that night, and that Lara was given a gift draw," said Goossen. "So if you really want to do the right thing, give Molina that rematch that he deserves, especially after getting the decision against Kermit Cintron."
Schaefer disagrees.
"If Williams chooses not to fight Lara again, Erislandy is ready to fight anyone, anywhere and at any time," said Schaefer. "And we will make sure they he gets the opportunities he deserves in the wake of his spectacular performance in Atlantic City."
Lara suffered suffered a small facial fracture as well as a large lump over his left eye as the result of a ruled accidental head butt. The Cuba native won't be able to train for six to eight weeks.
