Paul Williams

Last November, former two-time WBO welterweight champion Paul "The Punisher" Williams (39-2, 27 KO) faced  Argentine's Sergio Martinez (46-2-2, 25 KO) and was defeated by an explosive second round knockout—the type of knockout that could possibly put a bear to sleep.

Before the Martinez-Williams II event, many people had Paul Williams ranked No. 3 in their pound-for-pound list. He was a threat to many warriors, and few wouldn't fight him. However, Martinez was hungry enough to fight Williams in a rematch and earn his respect back. 

The Punisher wanted a fight with Mayweather, and tried everything to get that chance. He called him out in interviews, trash talked and said he would do anything to get that fight.  Williams was confident that he could one day defeat Mayweather or Pacquiao.

But is he still confident after that tremendous knockout? If so, when will he back in the ring? I'm not exactly sure when will he be back; however, I hope he's doing well and can soon be back in action.

Paul Williams is the type of fighter who likes to take risks. I still believe Mayweather- Williams would be a good fight. I'm quite interested on how Mayweather would handle Paul Williams.

Although I want a Mayweather-Williams fight to happen, I still want The Punisher to fight one good fight before facing Mayweather. I need to see if he still has the confidence he once had. Fight fans continue to wonder if Mayweather can defeat Sergio Martinez. If Mayweather fights Paul Williams, it will only hype Martinez-Mayweather more or a Martinez-Williams rematch if Williams ends up pulling off the victory.

The ugly truth is that Mayweather-Williams has a bigger chance of becoming reality now than before. Even though we haven't seen Mayweather face Martinez, we are not sure if Martinez can successfully defeat the undefeated champ. Floyd will get an idea of who Martinez defeated if he faces Paul Williams.

Williams just has to stay confident and continue conquering. Even though he couldn't conquered Martinez's land, he can always continue to try to conquer other lands that have gold and hope for this tough warrior.

If Williams continues to call out Floyd Mayweather, he may get a chance to try to prove the world something.

He will need to win a good fight against a good fighter before calling Floyd out. It seems like the media lost hope on The Punisher. Not that many people mention his name anymore, he has a lot to prove, that he is tougher than what most people think.

He was ranked No. 3 by few in the pound for pound list for a reason; it's amazing how one inch can change many people's minds. Paul Williams is still a dangerous threat to any warrior and hopefully will be back soon strong and healthy.

Maravilla is the nickname given to Sergio Martinez. It means marvel in Spanish. Sergio Martinez is a freshly dominant world-class middleweight (160 lbs). He's well on his way to becoming the next great middleweight.

In order to make sure he becomes the next great middleweight, it might be a good idea for Sergio Martinez to compare himself to the best. In that regard, there isn't anyone else besides the greatest middleweight of all time, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, that Martinez should look toward.

Now, what makes Hagler better than other great middleweights? Bernard Hopkins has the most consecutive defenses by any other middleweight (20). Carlos Monzon defended his middleweight title for seven years, yet he isn't considered the greatest middleweight of all time.

Marvelous Marvin Hagler is the greatest middleweight for essentially three reasons.

1. Up until his very last fight, Marvin Hagler beat every opponent he ever faced and avenged his only two losses and two draws by knocking out his opponents. He obliterated his competition in every rematch and never loss by knockout.

2. Marvelous Marvin Hagler held his title for a decade, beating the title-holders to unify the major world title belts in the process.

3. He beat the best and most popular fighters at the time, Roberto Duran and Tommy Hearns. In his last fight, he fought Sugar Ray Leonard to a close and hotly debated loss. This is the only "loss" Hagler never got to avenge. Leonard never gave him a rematch. After that, Hagler retired with a marvelous career.

Sergio Martinez has been knocked out once before by Antonio Margarito early in his career. Sergio Martinez can't be expected to hold a title for an entire decade, because he's 35 now and turning 36 next month. This means Sergio Martinez will have to do some quick unique objectives to counter Hagler's accomplishments.

Martinez likely has three years of good prime fighting left within him. Martinez started late so his body is fading late, but Martinez likely won't be the same fighter at 40 or 39. So here's a year by year three-year plan for Martinez's rise to greatness.

Year One: Vengeance

Martinez has only one unavenged draw and one unavenged loss left on his record. Kermit Cintron made Martinez suffer a draw after he somehow got up after suffering what looked to be a ten-count knockout. Kermit proceeded to complain so well to the referee about a headbutt no one saw that the  referee stopped the clock and started up the next round.

The argument gave Cintron's legs time to recover and his mind time to think while Martinez thought he had won. Martinez still continued to fight well, but was rewarded a draw, despite many considering him the clear winner.

Martinez was again swindled out of a decision victory, but this time against Paul Williams. Sergio Martinez landed the harder shots and was far more evasive. Instead of suffering a second career loss, Paul Williams won by majority decision in his first fight with Martinez.

To avoid another theft of victory, Martinez KO'd Williams with a perfectly timed left hand in the second round of their rematch.

Martinez will likely do the same to Kermit Cintron. All Martinez has to do is put Cintron down repeatedly to make him unable to even remotely win on the scorecards or put him down permanently so the scorecards are entirely not necessary.

Antonio Margarito gave Martinez his first loss over ten years ago. Now that may seem insignificant now, but it would mean a lot for Martinez if he could avenge the loss. Bob Arum, Margarito's promoter, seems content to match his fighters against each other.

In order to get this match, Martinez will likely have to come up with a good ppv proposal. Right now, HBO has the hots for Martinez. They loved that his rematch with Paul Williams was their second highest rated boxing program of 2010. They love that he's attractive. They love that there's money to be made off his boxing ability.

With that said, HBO would likely bend over backwards to convince Bob Arum to let Margarito fight Martinez in a ppv (pay-per-view). This could be a good barometer for Martinez's popularity. Cintron would most definitely get picked up by HBO, but only for a match that would air on HBO's regular programming.

Antonio Margarito is a ppv mainstay from his win over Miguel Cotto and loss to Manny Pacquiao. Martinez is a growing star with highly watched matches on HBO. This sounds like the makings of a hit, especially if placed around a BIG Hispanic holiday and packed in with a few HBO 24/7 documentary segments.

Year Two: Unification

This will require Martinez to be a draw filled with money that no one can turn down. Year one will take care of making Sergio Martinez into a star. This year will make him a legend.

As of right now, there are three other major middleweight world champions besides Sergio Martinez. Felix Sturm, trained by Freddie Roach, holds the WBA middleweight title and has done so since April of 2007. Sebastian Sylvester holds the IBF middleweight title and has done so since September of 2009. Dmitry Pirog is the youngest and newest of the bunch, a 30-year-old who won his title last July.

One method is to start campaigning with his promoters for a Middleweight World Boxing Tournament to counteract the excellent tournaments Showtime has been putting on. HBO has been losing ground to its rival, so if Martinez (HBO's biggest new star) comes with a tournament idea, they will at least listen.

The tournament doesn't need multiple rounds of round robin like the Super Six on Showtime. The tournament can just have the four middleweight champions fight in two matches. Maybe Felix Sturm against Sylvester Sebastian and Martinez versus Pirog. The winners could take each other on and HBO could film a special 24/7 documentary series to accompany the tournament over the course of the year.

Fighters often fight twice a year so this works perfectly within the confines of that period of time. Sturm and Sebastian have history between each other. Sturm beat Sebastian by unanimous decision on November of 2008. Pirog is a young fighter and Martinez is an older fighter. Young versus old always creates an interesting dynamic and lots of drama for the cameras to capture before the fight begins.

Year Three: Superfights

After beating Cintron and Margarito to avenge past defeats and unifying the middleweight titles, Sergio Martinez should be well on his way to a few superfights.

Manny Pacquiao will be two years older than now. That means his body chemistry will be changing and likely adapt to being at a higher weight. Fighters tend to move up in weight over time. Sergio Martinez is currently barely a middleweight. In two years, Sergio Martinez will be a full-fledged middleweight.

Manny Pacquiao has said he'll fight for three more years. If that is definitely true, then Martinez could catch him on his way out, especially if Martinez's ppv sales are very good.

Martinez versus Margarito and the middleweight finals could make two great selling ppvs, but only if HBO backs them right with heavy promotion and their famous 24/7 documentary series. Martinez needs to be a proven money-maker so his previous ppv sales being stacked high is imperative toward this final year working out well.

For historical precedence, let's look at Roberto Duran versus Marvin Hagler.

Roberto Duran came furiously with punches in bunches like Manny Pacquiao. His reach was short and height was only 5'7" compared to Manny Pacquiao's 5'6 1/2". Pacquiao has a 67-inch reach, one inch longer than Duran's. Both fighters had tough chins.

Roberto Duran fought a full 15-round fight with Marvin Hagler. The fight was scored for Roberto Duran by round 12, but Hagler pulled through to win at the end of round 15. Fights today end after 12 rounds. If Hagler and Duran can be compared to Martinez and Pacquiao, a 12-round fight could end in a similar fashion. Pacquiao could win by split decision. Martinez better be on his game and learn from Hagler's mistakes in that match.

There are only two other superfights for Sergio Martinez outside of one with Manny Pacquiao. Floyd Mayweather is one of those options. Sergio Martinez has historical precedence for helping to understand how to get a fight with Mayweather.

Sergio Martinez should look at Hagler's fight to get the fight with Sugar Ray Leonard made. Hagler had been out of the ring for over a year trying to campaign for a fight with Leonard. Hagler knew Leonard was the bigger star and Leonard was coming off a three year layoff.

Leonard said he wanted something and Hagler's people gave into his demands. Instead of the normal 15 round fight, Leonard got 12. Leonard got 12-ounce gloves instead of the usual eight- to 10-ounce gloves. Leonard also got an unusually large 24ft by 24ft ring. These things would help Leonard dance round the ring, block hard punches, and try to cruise to a unanimous decision victory.

Hagler gave Leonard all his demands to make sure he got this wonderful payday. Hagler got paid, but also got bamboozled out of a decision victory in many viewers' eyes. Leonard ran and flurried every now and then as Hagler exploded punch after punch in search of Leonard's body and chin.

Sergio Martinez would have to follow Hagler's example to get Mayweather in the ring. Agreeing to the unlimited blood testing is a start.

Agree to 10 ounce gloves, a large ring, and whatever else Mayweather may demand numerous advantages to counter either time spent in "retirement" or in prison, where he won't stay for long with the highly paid celebrity lawyers by his side to garner him only the very lightest of sentences IF he gets convicted.

Besides Mayweather and Pacquiao, there exists one final match. Martinez could fight in a rubber match with Paul Williams. A rubber match is a third match to settle the score between two fighters who each have one win over the other.

Paul Williams will not be in a rush to rematch Sergio Martinez who handed him such a horrible first knockout loss. But with that match being two-three years gone in the past, Williams will hopefully be a better fighter through vigorous training and hard sparring. The first match was nominated for fight of the year awards in 2009. Their second match was the knockout of the year in 2010.

Paul Williams and Sergio Martinez could lead to both fight and knockout of the year honors from various publications. Martinez could easily retire if he can land at least two of the possible three superfights I've named. Losses and draws completely avenged, unified middleweight division and two or three superfights is a great way to end a great career and earn the nickname Maravilla.

I think that Sergio Martinez is ready to take the next step in boxing.  His first round knockout of Paul Williams is a reminder that being overconfident, as Williams had been in the past, will bite you in the behind.

Williams was once named boxing's most avoided fighter.  I think that title was once given to Antonio Margarito.

Those two fighters had the opportunity to back up their claim in big fights.  Unfortunately, they bit the dust.

Martinez had his YouTube moment in an interview that I saw courtesy of a newly-anointed Bleacher Report writer.  Edgar Solorzano caught Martinez in a hallway recently.  Since Martinez speaks mostly Spanish, it helps that the dialogue is translated for some of us, including myself, who can't speak Spanish.

It's now clear who Martinez wants to fight and in what order.  Miguel Cotto is first on Martinez's list.  If he needs a scouting report on how to deal with Cotto, he can watch some tape.  There were plenty of high-profile fighters in the past that danced with him in the ring. 

Floyd Mayweather was one of Martinez's favorite boxers.  That's him being a little starstruck over the undefeated boxer.  He would be his second opponent. 

If I told you that Mayweather would be scared to fight Martinez, would you believe it?  Even though Martinez is a little bigger that Manny Pacquiao, Mayweather is scared to battle with the pound-for-pound champ.

Imagine this for a minute:  Floyd is scared of Pacquiao, but he calls out Amir Khan and thinks he would destroy Khan.  He might be scared to fight Martinez, too.

Mayweather couldn't handle Williams if they ever stepped in the ring.  Martinez did.  He took on a taller fighter and chopped him down. 

As far as taking on Pacquiao, forget about it.  Martinez will have to wait in line just like everybody else, unless his last name starts with an "M."

Joel Seeman wrote an article for Bleacher Report on the dream fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao.  He predicted that Mayweather would defeat Pacquiao for his 42nd win in a row or his 43rd, if you count the win over his baby's mama.  There was only one problem with Seeman's article that he wrote back in August: The fight didn't happen.

In reality, that fight may or may not ever happen.  Seeman handed the victory to Mayweather in his article that he probably wrote while dreaming.  Then, after Seeman was done dreaming, he woke up.

So anyways, I expect to hear more of Sergio Martinez in 2011 because he made a believer out of me for the way he caught Williams off-guard and knocked him out cold.  

A childhood game called “King of the Hill” has been a popular past time. It has only one simple rule: stay on the top, even if others are trying to push or pull you down.

Even so, it is already given that nobody really stays on top that long.

Sergio Martinez has long been playing this game for too long. He was always looking up in the bottom and striving hard to get a grip on a slippery stick to get into the top.

There are no free-pass or “gimme” fights, it’s not even a walk in the park. Everything has to be gained and being the best means you have to pass the eye of a needle or to sleep on a bed of nails.

Nobody said it was easy, but nobody said it was impossible.

Martinez had no game plan. He only has one thing in mind and that is to fight and win, whatever it takes.

For a period in time Paul Williams became the most avoided fighter in boxing. He has a freakish 82” reach and stands 6' 1" that could fit in the welterweight limit, but fights in the middleweight division.

When nobody dared, Martinez took up the challenge. He lost the match but he caught everyone’s attention. When they traded knockdowns in the first round, he knew that he could take William’s punches.

A right game plan could have put Williams to sleep and that was definitely what Martinez did on their rematch. He caught an open Williams with a left hook that send the face-first Williams to the canvass with eyes wide open.

At 35 years old, it seems like Sergio’s career has just started. He still has the size, strength and superb reflexes to bang it out with the young ones.

He at the same time has a lot of dreams to catch up and somehow made it just a couple of steps in the pound per pound ratings.

Nevertheless, that doesn’t necessarily mean that he has to fight either Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather Jr. the weight difference makes it seem impossible to meet up. However, there are still a lot of challenges to conquer.

People, who would push, pull or do anything to bring him down.

He would like to retire with a great legacy and winning against Williams can be a blessing or a curse. Even so, whatever happens. Martinez is the King of the Hill on his own right now. He doesn’t care how long, but he’s just happy to be on top.

Last weekend's sequel to the fight of the year became knockout of the year when Sergio Martinez pulled off a surprise KO victory in the middle of the second round. After suffering a controversial decision loss, he was determined to make it clear who was the best middleweight.

The fight on November 20 would prove a perfect place for this as they fought for the same belt Sugar Ray Leonard and Marvin Hagler fought for years ago, making the winner the legitimate champion.

Sometimes we forget there wasn't as many commissions, belts, and sub weight classes before(junior or super middleweight etc). In the days of the greats, there was only one belt and one champ in each weight class.

Paul "The Punisher" Williams, who has moved up from junior middleweight, is a three-time world champion himself. However the title Martinez holds currently and defended against Williams, is the true Middleweight Championship with lineage.

Martinez took it from Kelly Pavlik who beat Jermaine Taylor. Jermaine Taylor took the title from Bernard Hopkins who defeated  everybody. This lineage goes back to Leonard/Hagler. The days of the four horseman as Bob Arum has referred to his four super star fighters from what most consider as the golden era for middleweights (Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, Duran).

Well, it might be time for a new era of greatness. Manny Pacquaio is arguably the greatest boxer ever according to Max Kellerman. Floyd Mayweather Jr. has been able to hold the title of pound for pound champion before Pacquiao's rise. 

Sergio Martinez has beat every middleweight out there and has already said he would be willing to meat at a catch weight of 155 lbs for either Pacquiao or Mayweather, putting him in the Pound for Pound discussion.

Martinez vs Mayweather and the winner fights Pacquaio? I have been asking for Pacquiao vs Mayweather longer than anyone but I know Floyd has spent a lot of time out of the ring. He may need to sharpen his skills on Martinez first.

However, if Martinez wins, then we can say he deserves a shot against Manny. Not sure if he does at this point. He's in the running after his last performance. Regardless of what could be or use to be - Pacquiao is top of the heap and has a consistent performance history to prove it. His challengers should go in this sequence.

1. Mayweather
2. Mosley(if Mayweather cannot happen)
3. Martinez

Why Mosley? Name vs Name and because he is a skilled and legendary veteran. He deserves the shot if he wants it. Boxing matchmaking has always overlooked Shane Mosley. I think he has one more last great fight in him and I think he should get it. Some say past his prime but that's all relative.

Against a man who is even faster than Pacquiao? Pacquaio has always been about speed but what happens when he fights someone faster and who fights defensively? Although larger and stronger, all of Pacquaio's fights have been against slower opponents who fight offensively. Pacquaio vs Mosley may be a good preview to what could be expected in Pacquiao vs Mayweather.

When Sergio Martinez did the impossible and sent Paul “Iron Chin” Williams to the canvas many believed he had officially sealed the deal for fighter of the year and knockout of the year in 2010. However the knockout occurred in the second round leading many boxing journalists to completely write off the possibility of calling the match “fight of the year.'

I initially found that hypocritical considering I had heard of a match in 1985 titled “The War,” between Marvin Hagler and Tommy Hearns that ended in the third round and still won Ring Magazine fight of the year.

This made me wonder what was so special about that fight to make it a winner and why it was different from the Martinez-Williams fight.

Martinez-Williams ended earlier than people expected. The two warriors had previously beat each other down over the course of 12 action-packed rounds. Williams won a unanimous decision that was disputed by many who saw Martinez land the cleaner harder shots all night.

Their initial fight was a contender for fight of the year.

Their second fight didn't feel like a sure thing for fight of the year material, but should be given strong consideration, especially if a three round fight had previously won such accolades. Paul Williams started this fight off strong, Sergio Martinez countered and got in there with Williams, choosing to engage him rather than box in and out of his range like he had done previously. This brought the match to a quick end in the second round, but the action was still jam packed in my opinion...until I saw the Hagler-Hearns fight. I had heard of this fight, but had never seen it until checking it out on YouTube.

My jaw dropped and stayed open enough for a whole beehive to fly in. Both Hagler and Hearns fought fiercely from the opening bell. Exciting the crowd and bloodying each other up in almost an instant with lightning bolt action and thunder clapping punches. Hagler was wobbled, yet he wouldn't go down. Instead he kept throwing and pursuing Hearns. The first round was incredible. The second round was almost the pace of the first round of the Martinez-Williams fight. The third and final round was roughly the same pace, but ended in a string of punches that eventually led to Hearn's fall and vaulted Hagler to epic levels of greatness.

So naturally, I watched Martinez-Williams again on YouTube to compare it to Hagler-Hearns. The fight was quickly paced. Williams came out much more aggressively than his previous fight against Kermit Cintron. The hard hitting started quickly. The referee broke them up whenever they fought on the inside. This was very similar to what I saw the referee do in the Hagler-Hearns fight. The pace in the Hagler-Hearns fight was better, but the Martinez's knockout in round two,was so unpredictable and amazing that it completely blew Hearns' fall out of the water. Hearns stumbled and danced around in a daze for a while before being finished. That's a nice finish, but Williams was a taller fighter who was hit and just leaned forward, going dramatically limp.

Between the two fights, a lot of action transpired. Sergio provided the better knockout, but Hearns and Hagler provided the more intense fight. Hagler actually experienced great adversity, being wobbled in the beginning of the fight only to turn that around quickly in the second and then finish Hearns in the third.

I used to not understand why a second round fight couldn't be nominated for fight of the year if a three round fight won previously, but now I understand. It was the lack of adversity that killed Martinez's chance of having a fight of the year contender in 2010. He didn't look as if he were in trouble. The KO came from nowhere and was mighty impressive, but there wasn't any adversity. Martinez dominated the fight.

Ring Magazine tends to reward fights that have a constant change in the potential victor. Anytime someone completely dominates a fight, Ring magazine congratulates the victor, but doesn't reward his fight with fight of the year. Sergio Martinez has a bright future but fight of the year 2010 is not a part of it. Thanks to the aptly titled “War” between Marvin Hagler-Tommy Hearns, I completely understand why.

In case you did not know, KTFO means "knocked the #@!% out." And when I say that Sergio "Maravilla" Martinez's (46-2-2, 25 KOs) Saturday win over Paul "the Punisher" Williams (39-2, 27 KOs) had a Friday feel to it, I'm talking about one of my favorite movies of all time.

In one of Smokey's (played by Chris Tucker) many scene-stealing moments in rapper Ice Cube's vehicle, he perhaps coined one of the most indelible lines in comic film history when he stood over his "KTFO'd" friend (Red) and screamed out his infamous one-liner.

And that is all I could think of as I watched Paul Williams's body go limp from a perfectly-timed counter left hand to the chin from Sergio Martinez.

And just like that, the potential candidate for fight of the year morphed into the likely knockout of the year.

I am not exaggerating when I say this was one of the most devastating knockouts that I have ever seen in a superfight. Most recently, think Manny Pacquiao (over) Hatton or even Glen Johnson-Roy Jones, Jr. 

Seeing Williams stretched out was a scary sight. I hope that this fight does not ruin him, but rather teaches him to better use his freakish height and reach in order to protect his "all-too-easy-to-hit" chin.

If he does not, this may not be the last time that we see the Punisher get punished for his defensive mistakes.

As far as Martinez goes, this fight proves that he is peaking, even at age 35. It's also clear to me that Martinez is now the third best boxer on the planet after the win (behind Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather).

Although landing a fight against either Pacquiao or Mayweather appear to be a long shot, let's hope these fights are at least discussed. If they aren't, perhaps a Martinez-Williams rubber match is in order.

Until then, keep your chin down and your hands up!