By Rick Reeno
If Paul Williams is unable to secure a big fight at 160 or 154, we shouldn't be surprised to see "The Punisher" head back down to 147-pounds. His promoter Dan Goossen told BoxingScene.com that a welterweight return for Paul Williams is a serious possibility for 2010. Williams last fought at welterweight when he knocked out Carlos Quintana in one round in June of 2008. He jumped to middleweight in his next fight. Williams' last four ring appearances have been at 154-pounds and above. Three of the four fights have been at middleweight.
"I've spoken to Paul Williams, Al Haymon and George Peterson and I would really like to get him one of these 147 champions in his next fight. People forget that Paul is a natural welterweight. If there is a chance that Paul goes back to welterweight we are going to see a lot of welterweights losing a those 6 or 7 or gaining 6 of 7 pounds - so they could no longer consider themselves a welterweight," Goossen said.
Goossen was assured by Williams' trainer George Peterson that returning to 147 would not be a problem.
"Even going into the last fight, George told me that Paul was still capable of making 147, provided that he still has the proper time to prepare in his training camp," Goossen said. "At this stage, a lot of people think he would lose his attributes by moving down. I disagree, I think Paul will be bigger and stronger."
"In his last fight, people saw that Paul Williams will be a future star. A few more fights like that, the Mayweathers and Pacquiaos will not have any more excuses not to fight him provided that he can still make 147 a year from now. Paul can put a scare into a lot of people at 147. If that's our direction, we will have a lot of welterweights becoming junior welterweights quickly."
One of the options out there for Williams is the on again, and off again, fight with WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik. That option may be explored, among others.
"There won't be any negotiations. It's already there. Either it's going to be a 50-50 co-promotion or they can go get the rematch with Bernard Hopkins or Sturm or whoever else they said they would fight. There won't be any name calling. We'll just say thanks, and see you later. We have the option for the rematch [with Sergio Martinez]. Certainly that is something that we are looking at. The first was the fight of the year and the second one can only be better," Goossen said.
