By Thomas Gerbasi
Maybe Dan Goossen was right along.
When all those press releases went out over the years - you remember the ones - touting his fighter, Paul Williams, as the most feared man in all of boxing, most of us chuckled, sent kudos to Big Dan, and went back to our business.
But in 2010, as boxing celebrates Manny Pacquiao as an eight division world titlist, a news item that was the third leading story on CNN last Sunday morning, you can’t help but think of Williams’ place in the sport’s pecking order and wonder why the only hardware in his trophy case is a WBO welterweight title belt and an interim WBO junior middleweight trinket.
He’s 39-1 as a pro, 29 years old, and a decade into a career that began in 2000. All numbers that don’t raise any eyebrows in and of themselves, and when you add in two divisional titles, they are even more impressive. But the point is, when people really started taking notice of ‘The Punisher’, let’s say around 2006, when he blasted out Sergio Rios, Walter Matthysse, and Sharmba Mitchell in successive bouts, the thought wasn’t if Williams would ever win a world title, but how many of them would he collect before calling it quits. A pleasing fight style, a 6 foot 1 frame and the willingness to wage war wherever the best bouts presented themselves made these thoughts come easy, and the buzz only got louder when he won his first title by defeating Antonio Margarito in 2007.
Sure, he would get upset in his first title defense by Carlos Quintana in 2008, but he responded to the defeat the way all true champions do, by routing the Puerto Rican in a single round four months later.
Yet from there, things have gotten kind of cloudy for Williams. Fights are on, fights are off, callouts are made, callouts are ignored, prompting Williams’ trainer George Peterson to say this week, “They call this young man "The Punisher" and he sure is being punished by all the fighters at 147 that won't fight him.”
It was a funny line, but he wasn’t joking. And in between all the starts and stops, Williams looked good in stoppages of Andy Kolle and Verno Phillips, blah against Winky Wright and Kermit Cintron, and in Punisher form against the man he faces this Saturday in a highly-anticipated rematch, WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez.
And Williams can thank whatever God he prays to for Martinez, because it’s this fistic foil that has kept his name relevant in the game and in the race for a big fight. And by big, that only means one name, Pacquiao, even though bouts with Shane Mosley, Kelly Pavlik, Andre Berto, or Miguel Cotto hold plenty of intrigue.
But back to Martinez, who could never be put in the ‘running from Paul Williams’ sweepstakes. In fact, the 35-year old southpaw has run to the South Carolina native, not just once, but now twice. That’s great for fight fans, who can always use as much good news as they can get, and it’s also good news for Williams, who has the opportunity this Saturday to do the most important thing any fighter can do when searching for a big fight – get the public on his side. HBO has been pushing the bout, each fighter’s promoter has been doing their legwork, and there’s a buzz among the hardcore fans for the bout. And Williams is ready to do his part to top his performance from the first time.
“This one will be more brutal this time,” he said during a recent teleconference. “It will be more action and there will be more punches thrown. The same as in the first fight but ten times more so. It's going to be a good fight but I know I'm coming out with the win, either with a knockout or even with a decision.”
If he gets the victory, then the fun part begins, and that’s getting those aforementioned big names in the ring, which is easier said than done when promotional entanglements get in the way. It’s a familiar scenario for Goossen.
“It’s going to take the fighters to stand up to their promoters and say, ‘Hey, you know, I don't want to fight a (re-tread),’” he said. “’I don't want to fight someone that I've already beaten that hasn't earned the right to get back in the ring with me.’ That's what we had with the Haglers, Leonards, Hearns and Durans. I mean these fighters wanted the big fight, despite most promoters wanting to keep it in house for obvious reasons. So it's the Pacquiaos that have to say, ‘I want my legacy to be one of the greatest of all time and I don't care what the risks are. We've had it throughout the history of our sport.’ Duran was a 135-pounder fighting middleweights. So, you know, the size difference and risks, it didn't stop the greats from yesteryear to accomplish it and that's what it takes. The top fighters need to demand the biggest fights are made.”
Yes, that’s a promoter talking, but in spite of his obvious interests in getting a Pacquiao-Williams fight made, it also speaks of the fans’ desire to see fights of this nature. And no, if Williams bests Martinez again, fights Pacquiao and wins, beating the man won’t make him the man. But what it will do is set into motion the series of events that should have happened a long time ago for the soft-spoken Punisher. Then it will be time to start collecting those belts we all had picked out for him back in 2006.
In the meantime, he’ll just have to remind himself of something he said four years ago:
“I look at it like my time is gonna come,” said Williams. “I still stay humble and figure they can only run for so long. It will come to a point when they’re gonna have to do something, so I still stay focused, I still go to the gym, and still do what I’ve got to do.”