By Mark Vester
On more than one occasion, undefeated junior middleweight contender James Kirkland has mentioned a possible future fight with WBO interim-junior middleweight champion Paul Williams. The two could be in position very soon. Kirkland is challenging the full WBO champion Sergei Dzinziruk in the summer. If Kirkland wins, Williams would technically be his mandatory. That all depends on whether or not Williams moves back down to junior middleweight. He faces Winky Wright at 160-pounds on April 11. A solid win over Wright may open a more lucractive door at 160 or even at 147, where Williams is targeting Shane Mosley and Miguel Cotto.
When asked about the possibility of fighting Kirkland, Williams didn't show much interest. He doesn't think Kirkland is ready for such a fight and he doesn't see it as much of a contest at this point. He says Kirkland needs to build his name up first - and then they can talk about a fight.
"I'll blow him out of the water. That's not even on my level. If they build their rep up - if they build their reputation up like I did and maybe get a world title, then hey, I'd be looking to fight them. But until then, they've got to build their rep up. I'm not going to get in there with them and risk all that I've got, that I worked hard for, to take on somebody that's not on my level," Williams said.
Williams' promoter Dan Goossen agreed. He believes that Kirkland should fight another unbeaten junior middleweight contender, Alfredo Angulo. The winner would become a top-level challenger and a possible opponent for Williams.
"You know, speaking on that the perfect fight is Angulo against Kirkland. And that's really what we want to see and someone establish themselves as a premiere challenger. You know, Paul did that. Paul went through the stages of a mandatory fight. As you remember, we had to go to court and force it. We spent hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars in the court case to get Antonio Margarito in," Goossen said.
"We went out there. We beat him. We offered him $4 million to fight Paul in a rematch. He turned his back. Took $2 million - a little less then $2 million less to fight Shane and, you know, we paid our dues. We went out there looking for the biggest and best fight. We're looking for the biggest and, you know, biggest challenges out there."
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