LAS VEGAS – Thirteen years ago this week, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez was set to launch his tradition of Mexican Independence weekend main events by fighting a tall, powerful former welterweight world titleholder named Paul Williams.
Williams, a 6ft 1in Georgia native who owned victories over Antonio Margarito and Hall of Famer Sergio Martinez, had signed for his richest career purse one week earlier in May.
“Paul was a monster to fight because of his size and style,” said Tom Brown, Williams’ former matchmaker and current head of TGB Promotions. “He didn’t fight like your typical tall guy. He liked to brawl.
“Canelo was coming up, was young [22], strong. We knew it’d be a great fight, probably a Fight of the Year candidate. We had all the confidence in the world in Paul.”
Tragically, one week after signing for the bout, Williams was riding his motorcycle at 75 mph in Marietta, Georgia, when he veered away from a swerving vehicle and crashed horrifically on the dirt shoulder, his spinal cord severely damaged as he was left paralyzed below the waist.
“I had dirt in my eyes, ears for weeks after the accident. They were still pulling dirt out of my eyes. My head, when it hit the dirt, they said it was like somebody took a bowling ball and dropped it out of a plane and it hit to make that hole in the ground,” Williams told BoxingScene’s Jason Langendorf in 2015 when Langendorf wrote for Vice.
Alvarez went on to cruise against his replacement opponent, Josesito Lopez, knocking him down three times before stopping him in the fifth round at MGM Grand en route to a certain Hall of Fame career that has included world titles in four divisions and the continuation of his Mexican Independence weekend reign with Saturday’s bout against Terence Crawford at Allegiant Stadium.
Meanwhile, Williams, now 44, has been wheelchair-bound ever since his accident, making occasional trips for big fight weekends, training some young amateur fighters in Georgia and all the while convinced that his fight strategy for Alvarez would have been successful.
In a discussion with BoxingScene, Williams laid out that plan and provided insight into how he expects Alvarez’s latest foe to pursue the daunting task of defeating him.
Reflecting on 2012, Williams notes it was a full year before Floyd Mayweather Jnr exposed the flaws in the young Mexican’s boxing skill by dominating the September 2023 bout against Alvarez.
Williams also aimed to outsmart Alvarez.
“For one, I knew – just like Mayweather knew – that he was still learning,” Williams said of Alvarez. “I knew he had power. I was going to back up all night and let him follow me. And by the time of the seventh round, I was going to start stepping to him. That’s how I was going to do that one – I was going to put that bang on him.”
Alvarez has proven through tests against former middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin and light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol that he possesses a granite chin that has effectively made him impossible to knock down. But the constant-punching Williams, 41-2 (27 KOs), envisioned wearing down a foe who stood nearly 6ins shorter, with a 9ins reach disadvantage.
Williams boasted that he could weigh as greatly as 180lbs for a 154lbs bout.
”Hey, look here … when you put together those 100 shots [per round], how many can you take?” he asked. “You’re going to get me or I’m going to get you. That was my game plan. I practiced it. I had fought everybody and I would fight anybody. I was going to let him come toward me all night. He was too short.”
The fight has been left to become the fabric of dreams.
Williams has followed his scheduled opponent’s career closely, admiring the way Alvarez accepted and responded to the Mayweather fight – after Williams felt Mayweather skirted him.
And he calls Alvarez one of the sport’s top “dogs,” in a group that he believes includes WBA lightweight belt holder Gervonta Davis and Crawford, 37.
After what he did in fighting to a draw in a welterweight title bout in July, Manny Pacquiao is also in that group.
“If I had my legs, I’d still be fighting, too,” Williams said. “I like Canelo. He’s from my era. I’ll give him his props. Canelo went back to the drawing board after Mayweather and put in that dog work, and you can see it in the ring … it’s guys like that who know how to fight. Because they’ve been fighting all their lives.”
The respect for Nebraska’s four-division champion Crawford is earnest as well, but moving up two divisions from his previous bout, in August 2024, will be an imposing task even if Alvarez is coming off a lackluster showing in Saudi Arabia in May and hasn’t knocked anyone out since Caleb Plant in 2021.
“I give Crawford respect. All those guys who came out around [my time] are schooled amateurs. They want to bust guys up, break a rib,” Williams said. “The only way Crawford is going to get him is by becoming a dog. Look at this … Crawford is good, but I can’t see him banging with Canelo. Until I see that happen, I’m going Canelo on this one.”
Williams is ripe with opinions about the state of the game, insisting Davis wasn’t truly knocked down by Lamont Roach Jnr in March, and should go on the attack from the start if they ever rematch.
He said Devin Haney looks bad criticizing a Williams favorite – Ryan Garcia – for taking PEDs before their 2024 bout.
“The only thing [Haney] was on was his ass,” Williams said.
And he criticizes the sincerity of today’s younger boxers, with the exception of unbeaten lightweight title challenger Abdullah Mason.
“These guys soft,” Williams said. “It takes doing this dog work. It’s all about how bad you want it. I’m the only fighter that went to everyone’s gym from Georgia to New York. … I lived in every gym. Ask any of them about me … Coach Calvin [Ford, Davis’ trainer], anyone.
“Guys now have those tank tops on when they train. When I came in that gym, I had four, five sweatshirts on, pants, a sauna suit. I’m in there training! Why do they have bicycle shorts on? Who are they trying to impress? This ain’t ‘Soul Train.’ Get outta here … .”
That ruggedness served Williams well in his signature victory, a 2007 WBO welterweight title victory over Mexico’s Antonio Margarito, who was later found to have plaster-caked hand wraps on ahead of his 2009 loss to Shane Mosley, before they were confiscated. Hall of Famer Miguel Cotto believes Margarito used the loaded wraps in their 2008 title bout.
Williams won a unanimous decision.
“I can’t say he did and I can’t say he didn’t,” Williams said of whether Margarito wore loaded wraps for their fight. “I know when they lifted me out of the ring, my whole face was so swollen. I laid in bed, then turned the shower on and I stayed in that shower all night until the morning. I didn’t even want to sleep because my head was so swollen up: ‘Fuck that, I’m not sleeping.’
“He hit me like a thump. I was like,’Hold up, now.’ It didn’t matter to me. It was just blood. But that fight showed me, it ain’t how you start, it’s how you finish.
“I had my fun … .”
Brown said when the news of Williams’ crash reached his late brother-in-law and promoter Dan Goossen, the big-hearted family man “cried like a baby, was bawling.
“It hit that hard,” Brown said. “Dan loved Paul, and was so looking forward to promoting him in that fight. Tragic, terrible news. Peak of his power, height of his fame, his biggest fight.”
Told of Williams’ fight plan to lure in and then pound Alvarez, whom Brown promoted twice last year, the promoter said, “Boy, I wish we could’ve got that fight off. I could’ve seen that happening.”
Since being paralyzed, Williams said he has been richly supported by a monthly financial stipend from Premier Boxing Champions founder Al Haymon.
“Al Haymon is the best man there is. If I need anything, I pick up the phone,” Williams said. “Every month, he sends me money. Just because. I ask him, ‘What’s my job? What do I need to do.’ He says, ‘Be you.’”
Williams said the 5ft 8ins Crawford – who stood as welterweight champion just two summers ago – is too small to execute a Williams-like strategy against Alvarez.
“I have favoritism for Canelo, but most definitely Crawford has a chance,” Williams said. “Crawford’s going to have to go at Canelo and make it a fight, pop him hard in the mouth. That kind of stuff changes the whole night!
“That’s what I’m looking for: Who’s going to ice the other? Crawford has to box him. Take a chance, throw four, five punches, step around and throw four, five more. Whoever’s letting his hands go, coming forward – I see them winning the fight.
“Crawford can hurt him, but Canelo can dig down to that extra gear where … you want to get the blood. Let’s get there! I want to see action. Busted nose, busted eye.
“Like basketball and football have gotten, boxing’s not rough like it was. But these guys are from my day. And if Crawford steps to Canelo, Canelo will step it up and that will be a great fight. Canelo has more experience from the better guys that he’s fought. And that [added] weight for Crawford, he might not be in shape. I don’t think he can move like he has. With those harder shots, Canelo will edge it out and step on the gas.
“I hope it’s what ours was supposed to be – a good, old-school, throwback fight.”
Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.
