Las Vegas, NV (BoxingGurus.com) - Paulie Ayala must carry a four-leaf clover around with him all the time. On Saturday night, Ayala won another close decision by barely out-pointing Clarence "Bones" Adams on HBO at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino.

Ayala (33-1, 12 KO) was moving up in weight, to 122 pounds, and thus not defending his WBA Bantamweight title. Adams (41-4-3, 19 KO) was recently stripped of his WBA Junior Featherweight title because the WBA felt he did not defend it properly by only defending against Ivan Alvarez and not the number one contender. Adams was scheduled to defend against the number one contender Yober Ortega, but he backed out and Adams was then stripped because he did not fight him.

On to the fight at hand, Ayala, who had all the late betting money on him and became favorite, has had the big fights before, beating Johnny Tapia twice before. This would be Adams' first big fight.

Bones fought through a cut.   (AP)

Ayala started quickly and took it to the more powerful, but clearly nervous, Adams. Ayala won the first round and in the second had Adams hurt badly with a right-left combo. Adams would not go down and showed great heart to which Ayala knew he was in for a long night.

The second round must have been a wake up call for Adams as he started taking the fight over with crisp combos to the body and just being more active. Adams pretty much dominated the middle rounds taking the 3rd through 7th rounds.

Then the fight started turning for Ayala who must have sensed some urgency and started to pick up the pace. Ayala won the next two rounds being the more active fighter and digging to the body of Adams.

"I tried to get him out of his game," Ayala said. "Bones Adams is a danger at all times. He throws hard punches. He evades a lot. He gave me a lot of problems in the late rounds."

In the 11th round, Adams suffered a serious cut over his left eye from an accidental head butt. The cut was bleeding profusely and the doctor was on the verge of stopping the fight. Adams said he could see fine and the doctor let the fight continue. Ayala went on to win the 11th round as Adams was fighting very defensively because of the cut.

In a sign of great bravery, Adams came out in the 12th round and totally dominated Ayala and easily won the round by crisp clean combos to the body of Ayala.

Ayala had been in this position many times before. He was awaiting the judge's scorecards in a fight many ringside observers felt he lost. The judge's scorecards read 115-112 (Ayala), 114-113 (Ayala) and 114-113 (Adams). BoxingGurus.com had the fight scored 115-113 for Adams. Ayala had slipped another defeat by "…the hair of my chinny-chin-chin."

"At the worst, I thought it would be a draw," said Adams. "I thought I landed the cleaner shots, the most effective blows to the body. I thought I won the fight."

The difference in the scoring was the 2nd round. All three judges scored the round 10-8 for Ayala even though he did not knock down Adams. Had the judges scored the round 10-9, the fight would have had ended in a draw.

Both Ayala and Adams made $500,000 for the fight.Las Vegas, NV (BoxingGurus.com) - Paulie Ayala must carry a four-leaf clover around with him all the time. On Saturday night, Ayala won another close decision by barely out-pointing Clarence "Bones" Adams on HBO at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino.

Ayala (33-1, 12 KO) was moving up in weight, to 122 pounds, and thus not defending his WBA Bantamweight title. Adams (41-4-3, 19 KO) was recently stripped of his WBA Junior Featherweight title because the WBA felt he did not defend it properly by only defending against Ivan Alvarez and not the number one contender. Adams was scheduled to defend against the number one contender Yober Ortega, but he backed out and Adams was then stripped because he did not fight him.

On to the fight at hand, Ayala, who had all the late betting money on him and became favorite, has had the big fights before, beating Johnny Tapia twice before. This would be Adams' first big fight.

Ayala started quickly and took it to the more powerful, but clearly nervous, Adams. Ayala won the first round and in the second had Adams hurt badly with a right-left combo. Adams would not go down and showed great heart to which Ayala knew he was in for a long night.

The second round must have been a wake up call for Adams as he started taking the fight over with crisp combos to the body and just being more active. Adams pretty much dominated the middle rounds taking the 3rd through 7th rounds.

Then the fight started turning for Ayala who must have sensed some urgency and started to pick up the pace. Ayala won the next two rounds being the more active fighter and digging to the body of Adams.

"I tried to get him out of his game," Ayala said. "Bones Adams is a danger at all times. He throws hard punches. He evades a lot. He gave me a lot of problems in the late rounds."

In the 11th round, Adams suffered a serious cut over his left eye from an accidental head butt. The cut was bleeding profusely and the doctor was on the verge of stopping the fight. Adams said he could see fine and the doctor let the fight continue. Ayala went on to win the 11th round as Adams was fighting very defensively because of the cut.

In a sign of great bravery, Adams came out in the 12th round and totally dominated Ayala and easily won the round by crisp clean combos to the body of Ayala.

Ayala had been in this position many times before. He was awaiting the judge's scorecards in a fight many ringside observers felt he lost. The judge's scorecards read 115-112 (Ayala), 114-113 (Ayala) and 114-113 (Adams). BoxingGurus.com had the fight scored 115-113 for Adams. Ayala had slipped another defeat by "…the hair of my chinny-chin-chin."

"At the worst, I thought it would be a draw," said Adams. "I thought I landed the cleaner shots, the most effective blows to the body. I thought I won the fight."

The difference in the scoring was the 2nd round. All three judges scored the round 10-8 for Ayala even though he did not knock down Adams. Had the judges scored the round 10-9, the fight would have had ended in a draw.

Both Ayala and Adams made $500,000 for the fight.