Paul Williams

WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez will defend his crown against former two-time WBO welterweight titlist Paul “The Punisher” Williams in a rematch scheduled for November 20 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J.

Williams (39-1, 27 KOs), a southpaw who is rightfully billed as the most “avoided fighter in the world,” defeated Martinez (45-2-2, 24 KOs) by a controversial majority decision last December.

Martinez, who also dabbled professionally as a cyclist and soccer player and only began boxing at the late age of 20, captured his belt April 17 when he trumped “The Ghost” Kelly Pavlik (36-2, 32 KOs) by a unanimous decision.

The second bout between Williams and Martinez will be fought at a catch weight of 157 pounds.

“It’s at 157 because we didn’t have a choice,” said Martinez’s promoter Lou DiBella, a graduate of Tufts University and Harvard Law School. “Williams wanted the catch weight. There was an issue on the weight and we gave on the weight.”

Williams, who is rated by Ring Magazine as the number five pound-for-pound pugilist in the world, is extremely tall and lanky and his awkward style has created nightmares for opponents.

“The Punisher” suffered his only loss as a professional to “El Indio” Carlos Quintana (27-3, 21 KOs) via unanimous decision in February 2008.

However, Williams proved Quintana’s victory was an utter fluke when he demolished “El Indio” four months later by a first round TKO.

Martinez possesses blinding quickness and his punching volume is remarkably aggressive.

Fans of “The Sweet Science” will be granted a tremendous contest this Fall between two elite prizefighters.

Nevertheless, expect Williams to “punish” the talented Martinez and earn a decisive triumph within ten rounds.

Paul Williams and Sergio Martinez are officially set to fight again on November 20^th of this year. This is a fight that was on and off about 100 times so it is good to see it is finally set in stone.

The fight will be aired live by HBO and will take place in Atlantic City at Boardwalk Hall. The fight will be for Martinez’s middleweight title, but it will be fought at a catchweight of 157 pounds.

Now that the fight is set, the question is, what now? Will we get another Fight of The Year candidate like we did in 2009 or will we see a totally different fight?

The careers of these two men have gone different directions since their first fight. Williams has lost some luster after a abbreviated win over Kermit Cintron.

Martinez, on the other hand, is the toast of the boxing world after he beat a much bigger Kelly Pavlik in Boardwalk Hall to become the WBC, WBO, and Ring middleweight champion.

You can argue that Martinez has been one of the hottest fighters in boxing since he made his American splash in late 2008. He has gone 2-1-1 and won titles in two divisions in that span.

Williams' career isn't on life support, but he hasn’t been as impressive or lived up to the hype. He has gone 6-1 since 2008, but two of those wins can be disputed.

The Martinez win wasn’t clear cut and he got a win over Cintron after he fell out of the ring in the fourth round. That win is highly disputed and many thought that he clearly lost.

He didn’t dominate Carlos Quintana (KO 1) or old veterans Winky Wright and Verno Phillips. All good wins, but nothing great.

We clearly have two boxers going in different directions at this point. Martinez is getting better every time out while Williams seems to be holding on and just getting by.

Williams made this fight much harder than it should have been last time. He has a six-inch reach advantage, but didn’t use it at all in their first fight.

He made it an inside fight, letting Martinez get into range and get comfortable. If he stays on the outside, he can use his jab to regulate the fight and win easily.

He also has the power advantage. Martinez isn’t feather-fisted and Williams found that out in the first fight, but Williams has more power and can use that to his advantage.

Martinez keeps his hands low and Williams can take advantage of that by hitting him hard and clean from the outside before Martinez can ever thinking about punching.

Martinez had the speed advantage then and will still have it now. If he can get into a rhythm and use his speed and footwork, it will be a long night for Williams.

In my opinion, Williams has to change his game plan while Martinez needs to do what he did in the first fight. If anything, this fight should be easier for him.

This should be a compelling fight yet again and should bring us some good action. The question is always going to be, who is going to make more changes?

We won't know until fight night and it will be interesting to see who makes the changes and how. Either way, we should be in for yet another treat at the famous Boardwalk Hall.

This was originally written for and published on www.kissingthecanvas.com.

There has been plenty of hand-wringing around the boxing community concerning the lackluster slate of fights that has been served up so far in 2010.

It’s hard to say it hasn’t been justified, because it’s been a fairly sour year for the sweet science.

Despite that, it’s starting to look like all fight fans had to do was be patient. The year isn’t quite over yet, and November is shaping up to have fights worth watching on every weekend.

The November boxing schedule got another big boost yesterday, when it was officially announced that the much rumored rematch between Sergio Martinez and Paul Williams will take place on Nov. 20 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

That’s the same place the two fighters put on a thrilling display last year, helping put Martinez on the map even though he lost the decision.

The current middleweight champ has a lot more American fans now, and Williams’ punch output means he’s rarely in a boring fight.

It’s always dangerous to assume that an exciting first bout will guarantee an equally compelling follow-up (see Juan Manuel Marquez-Juan Diaz II), but Martinez-Williams II is as close as it gets to money in the bank.

Of course that’s just one fight, but the other three weekends in November aren’t looking too shabby, either. Though not all of these bouts are 100 percent finalized, here’s what else we should be watching in two months:

Nov. 6: Juan Manuel Lopez vs. Rafael Marquez (Showtime)

Pushed back once due to injury, this much-anticipated clash looks like it’s all set for the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Lopez is undoubtedly one of the sport’s most exciting fighters, often walking on the razor’s edge between triumph and disaster.

He’s already knocked out two opponents in 2010, but he’ll be facing a much bigger challenge in Marquez, an experienced champion who proved his skill, power and heart in his epic series with Israel Vazquez.

On the same night, Zab Judah will try to keep his revival going by taking on Lucas Matthysse on HBO.

But the real intrigue for hardcore fans will come with the scheduled return of James Kirkland, a devastating knockout artist whose career has been on hold for more than a year due to legal troubles.

Nov. 13: Manny Pacquiao vs. Antonio Margarito (HBO PPV)

It’s not the fight most Pacquiao fans wanted to see him make, but he’s popular enough that people will still tune in.

Add in the controversy surrounding Margarito and a larger-than-life venue in Cowboys Stadium and all the ingredients are there for something memorable.

Pacquiao’s PPV undercards are often a waste of time, but this one might be a little better.

Cuban defector Guillermo Rigondeaux should get pushed a bit more by Ricardo Cordoba, and former middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik will try his hand at 168 pounds against Daniel Edouard.

Nov. 27: Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Michael Katsidis (HBO)

While Marquez keeps stumping for a third shot at Pacquiao, he’ll have to be careful not to look past Katsidis.

The Aussie has come up short against elite competition in the past, but he’s got the power to be plenty dangerous and a style that usually leads to sustained action.

The co-feature should also be worth watching, as mini-Williams clone Celestino Caballero does battle with Jason Litzau, a fighter who’s been on both ends of some decent KOs in the past.

Looks like a pretty tasty lineup to this writer. November can’t get here soon enough.

Nick Tylwalk is the editor and co-founder of BoxingWatchers.com. Follow his Twitter feed @Nick_Tylwalk or the site's feed @boxing_watchers.

Paul Williams officially announced that he will be fighting in the welterweight division once again according to Boxing News 24—a move that could land him a fight with Manny Pacquiao.

Pacquiao, the current WBO welterweight titleholder, has defeated a long list of reputable boxers as well, but Williams is widely known as the most avoided name in boxing, and for a very good reason—he literally towers over all his opponents.

Williams is 6’1 with a 82 inch reach. Pacquiao on the other hand is 5’6 with an arm length of 67 inches; a staggering disadvantage for Pacquiao to say the least.

Meanwhile, Floyd Mayweather had been relatively quiet after Pacquiao agreed to Olympic style drug testing with a 14-day cutoff prior to the fight. Then he announced that he will take a one to two year layoff from boxing.

Even though Roger Mayweather (Floyd’s uncle and trainer) spoke out against his claim, which he vehemently denied, this could cause Pacquiao to get impatient and shop for a new opponent.

Williams would make the ideal opponent for Pacquiao. He’s a big name, he has notable victories over quality opponents (Kermit Cintron, Sergio Martinez, Antonio Margarito and Carlos Quintana just to name a few) and he is a two-time WBO welterweight champion.

So how would a match between these two go down?

Williams and Pacquiao are both known for their power; both fighters have knocked out 67 percent of their opponents.

But Williams is also known for his potent punch productivity as well. A combination of his length and the consistency of his punches, Pacquiao could be outdone before a match-up is even in the works.

Luckily for boxing fans, Pacquiao hasn’t been known for ducking any opponent. But then again, he’s never been pitted against a boxer quite as formidible as Williams.

Former two-time WBO welterweight champion Paul “The Punisher” Williams defeated Kermit “The Killer” Cintron by a controversial technical split decision Saturday night at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.

After a blasé start to the bout, Williams (39-1, 27 KOs) and Cintron (32-3-1, 28 KOs) finally began to exhibit some of their renowned punching power in the early portion of the fourth round.

Unfortunately, after one exciting exchange, Williams slipped to the canvas and Cintron tripped over “The Punisher’s” left leg and violently tumbled through the ropes and hit his head on both a monitor and table.

Despite Cintron’s pleas to continue, the fight was justifiably halted and “The Killer” was strapped to a stretcher and rushed to the back for an examination.

California rules mandate that a winner must be awarded in a fight if the contest is stopped due to injury after the fourth round.

“It’s a strange way to get a win,” said Williams, 28, an extremely tall southpaw who has long been accurately hailed as “the most avoided fighter in the world.”

“I’ll try to fight better next time,” continued Williams. “I definitely don’t want to see a guy get hurt. I wanted to hurt him with a punch, not by him falling out of the ring. I feel bad. The fans didn’t get their money’s worth.”

Cintron’s promoter, Lou DiBella, was infuriated with the outcome of the contest.

“No one really knew who won that fight,” said DiBella, a graduate of Tufts University and Harvard Law School. “There wasn’t enough fight to be judged. It was three and a half rounds. That’s not a fight. There should be a rematch, and he’s a man’s man. I think he’ll give him a rematch.”

Because Kelly Pavlik (36-2, 32 KOs), “Pretty Boy” Floyd Mayweather (41-0, 25 KOs), and The Ring magazine’s No. 1 pound-for-pound boxer Manny Pacquiao (51-3-2, 38 KOs) are all mortified of Williams, there is a chance that a rematch between the two could occur in due time.

“Most fighters don’t enjoy fighting awkward southpaws,” said Mike Cappiello, the owner of Cappiello Brothers Boxing gym in Brockton, Mass. “But money talks.”

Particularly in the corrupted sport of boxing, money absolutely does talk.

Nevertheless, neither Mayweather nor Pacquiao would have even a remote chance to trump Williams.

At a menacing 6'2" in height, Williams has beaten championship pugilists the caliber of Winky Wright (51-5-1, 25 KOs), Sergio Martinez (45-2-2, 24 KOs), and Antonio Margarito (38-6-0-1, 27 KOs) since he made his debut as a prizefighter in May of 2004.

Further impressively, Williams managed to avenge his only loss as a professional when he whooped Carlos Quintana (27-3, 21 KOs) by a devastating first-round TKO in June of '08.

Mayweather and Pacquiao deserve the adulation that they respectively receive because they are both boxers for the ages.

Still, regardless of his lack of fame, Paul Williams is the best boxer in the world, and he would make easy work of them both.

The down fall of Floyd Mayweather Jr. will not be caused by the destroying left hand of Manny Pacquiao or the significant height/reach/work rate of Paul Williams or any top threatening contender out there in fact it will not even come in the form of a fighter at all.

The downfall of Mayweather will be junk food.

Yes, a poor eating habit is something that the Mayweathers have all been taking lightly for all of their lives.

You may recall in the 24/7 episode when his father Floyd Mayweather Sr. showed up late to train Ricky Hatton for the Pacquiao fight due to his daily Taco Bell run to the Pretty Boy himself flaunting junk food almost as much as he makes it rain with money.

In 2005, Mayweather had his official coming out party to the masses when he faced crowd pleasing legend Arturo Gatti for the WBC light welter weight title.

One shocking incident that stunned most journalists was at his open work out media day. He finished doing his legendary signature sit up routines then reached into a box of Krispy Kreme donuts and ate a donut in front of all the media and said in his own words that only a true champion like him can eat anything he wants.

There are even several videos of Floyd doing sit ups while eating greasy chips or hitting the speed bag while drinking a carbonated soda with one hand.

For those of us full-time health nuts or even part time health nuts we know that certain junk foods just do not agree with our stomachs and bodies. Also, the older you get the more damage these poor eating habits take their toll on your body in the long run.

Floyd has been seen eating everything from some liquid cheese that sprays from a can to various candies.

Did anyone see his legendary MTV Cribs episode he states he has no love for five star dining and prefers to keep it real with Top Ramen noodles instead?

Some of my former female co-workers have rolled with Mayweather and they have said he has been known to go to Burger King up to three times a day.

Last weekend I was in Las Vegas for a friend’s bachelor party and one member of our entourage was at Fatburger at 3 am Saturday morning and guess which undefeated American pound for pound champion was there in the drive thru?

Yes it was Money May.

You maybe saying, but wait Floyd trains like a machine and his body is so ripped and perfect. Yes, Floyd is the man and trains 200 percent.

He has been known to start jogging the second after he leaves a Las Vegas night club in the middle of the night.

But again junk food, fast food, and poor eating habits kills and Floyd is now 32 years old and his body has been through a lot as he admitted was the number one reason for his most longest recent retirement.

If you take a look at the diets of all the past and current champions they all eat extremely healthy, only veggies and high protein diets of chicken and fish.

Then of course today our champions hire the best nutritionists that their seven figure purses can allow them to hire.

So why is Mayweather the one fighter that has gotten away with the poor eating lifestyle for so long?

Will it be the downfall of this undefeated pound for pound American great?

“We need to change the way we eat, the way we live and the way we treat each other”- Tupac Shakur

The enigma that is Paul Williams. 

By now, it's become a cliche to name Paul Williams the "most avoided fighter in boxing". It's a title he's unofficially held for a few years now. The list of champions who have seemingly avoided him is long and illustrious. Everyone from Floyd Mayweather Jr. to Bernard Hopkins and Shane Mosley have, at one time or another, been accused of ducking the southpaw out of Augusta, Georgia. 

Some people have even called out Manny Pacquiao for not facing Williams.

With good reason. 

He's a relentless and very tall southpaw who keeps his jab continually in his opponent while blistering him with solid straight left hands. His height has caused problems for so many fighters and his hand speed is blinding. For a tall man, Williams has excellent stamina and rarely tires in a twelve round fight. 

Some people have dubbed him 'the next Tommy Hearns', but I don't think that's fair to Hearns or Williams. 

Yes, both were overly tall fighters, but that's where the similarities ends. Hearns was one of the most devastating one-punch knockout artists of all-time. His right hands turned world champions into bed wetters. He was molded out of the Motor City and contained the stuff of Mack trucks.

Hearns must be considered one of the all-time greats. He held battles against Marvin Hagler, Sugar Ray Leonard, Wilfred Benitez, Roberto Duran, and Iran Barkley. His career record was an unbelievable 61-5-1. Unbelievable because he fought actively until he was forty one years old with a couple of wins coming at the age of 46 and 47. When you consider the level of competition he faced, that's a very impressive record.

Paul Williams is a fighter that could be one of the all-time greats. 

He has substantial wins against the likes of Antonio Margarito and Winky Wright. The lone blemish on his record is a unanimous decision loss against Carlos Quintana — a loss he quickly avenged with a subsequent one round knockout of Quintana. 

I was of the opinion that Williams was on the road to greatness and would someday be talked about within the company of a Marvin Hagler or Tommy Hearns. 

Now?

I just don't know. 

The reason is simple — Sergio Martinez. 

The same Sergio Martinez that Williams fought on December 5th of 2009. 

The same Sergio Martinez that knocked Williams down and continually landed big, big shots leading to a close 12-round decision for Williams.

In my opinion, their brawl was the fight of the year. Undoubtedly they're scheduling a rematch. It could turn into a trilogy in the vein of Gatti-Ward. That's a very, very tall order but these guys are like two pit bulls in a phone booth. They just don't let up.

I thought Martinez should have won the fight. Williams was more active, but Martinez continually landed the bigger shots. 

There's one thing that can now be said about Williams — nobody will ever accuse him of having a glass chin. How he stayed up after some of those right hands is beyond me. 

Nor, should anyone ever question his heart. He was relentless all night long, even while Martinez was teeing off on him. 

But, it exposed Williams as a fighter that does have some weaknesses. 

He is very, very susceptible to a right hook counter off his left. Martinez continually rocked him all night with that punch. 

He also doesn't have the knockout power of someone like a Tommy Hearns. He never really hurt Martinez and his one knockdown seemed more like a slip to me. 

It could be that Sergio Martinez is that good of a fighter. He only has two losses against Margarito and Williams (although any losses to Margarito are now suspect due to his use of hand casts). People have dubbed him one of the most avoided fighters in the sport.

My judgement is still out on whether Williams will join the legions of legends or be remembered as a Pernell Whitaker type of fighter. Very good, but not quite Hall of Fame caliber. 

He needs to get in the ring with some world-class level of fighters. To me, that means Mayweather Jr., Pacquiao, Hopkins, or Mosley. 

He's a risk for any of those fighters. They face a very real possibility of losing to him. But, he's not a 'name' right now. Paul Williams won't bring in an extra 500,000 PPV buys. The general public knows nothing about him and there certainly won't be the hype of a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight. 

For now, it looks like he'll have a rematch against Sergio Martinez and possibly a fight against Kelly Pavlik. Those would be excellent fights under any conditions. Although I'm a bit surprised that Pavlik would want to fight him while he's seemingly recovering from his loss to Bernard Hopkins. 

There are a host of other fighters at the 160 lb (middleweight) or 168 lb (Super Middleweight) classes that would be excellent fights for Williams. I'd especially like to see him line-up against Lucien Bute or Carl Froch. Undoubtedly those fights would be huge across Canada and Europe and they would be extremely entertaining. 

Until then, Williams is Cinderella without a glass slipper.  The prettiest girl around, but can't get into the ball.

The second half of 2009 has been increasingly frustrating for 'the most feared fighter in boxing', Paul "The Punisher" Williams.

Back in April, Williams (37-1, 27 KOs) jumped back up to the middleweight division where he would go on to unanimously outpoint Winky Wright over the course of 12 rounds.  Things were looking sterling for Williams as he would soon find himself all set for a crack at Wold Middleweight Champion Kelly Pavlik.

Lingering hand injuries for Pavlik led to multiple postponements and cancellations leaving Williams and his team in need of a worthy opponent for his December 5th HBO television spot. Fights with welterweight sluggers Shane Mosley and Josh Clottey were talked about, but ultimately never came to fruition.

Enter WBC jr. middleweight king Sergio Martinez (44-1-2,24 KOs) of Argentina.

Coming off of an impressive victory over Alex Bunema, followed by a highly controversial draw with Kermit Cintron, both of which were televised on HBO, Martinez was ready to get back in the spotlight and took the fight on just a months notice.

Williams, who often draws comparisons to Henry Armstrong for his ability to compete in multiple weight classes, will not drop down in weight to vie for Martinez's junior middleweight crown, and will instead face him in a middleweight bout.

It isn't as glamorous as fighting for the World Middleweight Championship, but it's a stiff test nonetheless.

Any fighter across the ring from Martinez is in for a rough night.  Factor in that Williams spent several months preparing for a much different fighter in Pavlik and it's clear that "The Punisher" faces a very difficult task on Saturday night.

In short, it's not quite the high-profile fight he had anticipated, and it could be argued that Martinez presents more of a conundrum to Williams than Pavlik would have.

Neither of which matters much to "The Punisher."  He'll see his share of high-profile fights and he's endured arduous tasks throughout his career.

He's just glad the wait is over.

Questions and comments can be sent to brianoblake@yahoo.com

Here is an interesting rumor that is beginning to pick up some steam. According to Steve Kim over at Maxboxing, Middleweight Champion Kelly Pavlik may be in negotiations to face division jumper Paul Williams later in the year.

Some early sticking points seem to be the venue and William's purse split. Pavlik's people want Atlantic City, and they want Pavlik to earn a substantially larger payday than Williams for this fight.

I must say if this fight is going to come off, Williams is going to have to agree to whatever Pavlik's people want. 70/30 purse split, glove choice, venue, whatever. Williams has very little negotiating power because he really has no drawing power.

For all the talk of Williams being ducked, it is time to put up or shut up. This is his shot at the REAL Middleweight champion. If he defeats Pavlik he will earn additional negotiating power for future bouts based on being The Ring Magazine champion.

It's up for debate whether or not defeating Pavlik will increase his fanbase, but it certainly will help with his exposure. Not to mention the increased power a win would have in a negotiation for a rematch down the line.

As for William's chances in this fight, I see it as a pick 'em fight. Williams has good movement, throws punches in bunches, and a good set of whiskers. He hasn't faced a puncher who can hit as hard as Pavlik yet, and that may be the tale of this fight.

If he can take Pavlik's best shots, he should be able to outbox Pavlik over twelve rounds. If Pavlik can hurt or slow him down, Pavlik can get the decision or KO victory.

I hope for both parties, this fight get signed. It is one of the very few relevant fights to be had at middleweight.