By Jake Donovan (photo by Bryan Crowe/FightWireImages)
The term catchweight as we’ve come to know it today has become synonymous with pay-per-view and other high profile bouts, to where it should be renamed cashweight. Seldom do two fighters abandon their comfort zone for the sake of facing one another unless a significant pile of cash lies on the table.
This weekend’s upcoming money grab is probably the greatest example. Oscar de la Hoya will weigh in at 147 lb or less for the first time in more than seven years, while Manny Pacquiao fights at the welterweight limit, not only for the first time in his career, but 12 lb beyond his career heaviest.
Beyond money, the practice has served as a preventive measure from a fighter growing stale waiting for more ideal opportunities to materialize within his weight class.
The latter is where Paul Williams fits in, with money having little to nothing to do with the recent string of bouts to which he’s gladly accepted. All of the proof that you need could be found within his 2008 campaign, capped this past Saturday with a one-sided eighth round stoppage of Verno Phillips.
In becoming the first person in more than 20 years to force Phillips to concede inside of the distance, Williams picks up his third straight win – and knockout – in three separate weight classes.
It’s not so much the explosive performance he’s delivered in each fight, but his very presence in the ring against the competition he’s faced that sends the emphatic message - if you weigh anywhere between 147 and 160, Paul Williams will seek you out. If he can’t find you, he’ll move on to the next fighter brave enough to accept the challenge.
What he won’t do, is sit around and wait for opportunity to come knocking, while bitching about the parade passing him by. That nonsense is reserved for everyone else who huffs and puffs, but in the end would rather step over a dollar just to pick up a nickel.
If nothing else, Paul Williams’ 2008 campaign has proven two things: one loss does not kill a career, and cash doesn’t dictate every fight. In fact, the opposite appears to be true on the latter – no amount of cash will seemingly entice those highest on Team Williams’ wish list.
A $4 million package was offered to – and largely ignored by - Antonio Margarito for a rematch to their July 2007 thriller, which officially put Williams on the map after a close win in a battle of two welterweights few others were in a hurry to face. A slew of excuses were offered for why the fight couldn’t be made, and still won’t happen anytime soon. Margarito recently signed on for a January 24 showdown with Shane Mosley before an inevitable rematch with Miguel Cotto sometime next summer.
The two fights will earn him back to back career high paydays, but neither will help fill the void that still remains since Floyd Mayweather vacated the lineal welterweight championship earlier this year.
Not so long as Paul Williams continues to hover at and around the 147 lb division.
Despite scooping up an interim title with his win over Phillips this past weekend, Williams made it perfectly clear that for the right fight(s), he has no problems weighing in at 147 lb or less. Only due to alphabet politics was Williams forced to vacate the welterweight belt he won from Margarito last summer, as the interim title at stake this past weekend was more about Tall Paul keeping future options open than it was about abandoning the welterweight division.
In fact, every fight Williams has accepted this year came about because others failed to materialize.
The year was supposed to begin with a welterweight alphabet unification match with Kermit Cintron. That fight fell apart after Cintron suffered an injury in what was supposed to be a tune-up in his November ’07 optional defense against Jesse Feliciano. Team Williams was forced to put an ad in the paper in order to keep their February HBO date.
In came Carlos Quintana, and soon to follow was one of the year’s biggest upsets. Williams turned in a dismal showing, losing his undefeated record and alphabet title in the process.
The two would be last of anything that Williams would lose. Three fights have followed, in which Williams has barely lost a minute, never mind a round ever since the worst night of his professional career. Quintana was decked twice and overmatched really from the opening bell in a June rematch that lasted all of 135 seconds.
The Quintana rematch was Williams’ only bout of 2008 where the fighter he faced was his first choice. In his September meet against Andy Kolle, Williams landed at the intended weight class, just not against the desire opponent.
Plans were underway for a two-division jump in weight to face lineal middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik. Promoters Bob Arum (Pavlik) and Dan Goossen (Williams) have slightly different versions of why the fight didn’t take place, with money of course being the deal breaker.
Arum claims a deal had been reached, only for Team Williams to jerk him around for two weeks before pulling the plug. Goossen’s version had Arum less-than-generous with the purse offer, and the two sides winding up $250,000 short of staging a fight that had The Punisher jumping two weight classes.
With Pavlik ultimately settling for a catchweight fight with Bernard Hopkins and Arum spitefully ignoring a $4 million offer for a Williams-Margarito rematch, Williams agreed to a September stay busy fight against Andy Kolle on Versus. He didn’t stay for very long, in fact 40 seconds less than the Quintana rematch, his (listed) 6’1” frame wearing 157 as well as he has 147 in recent years.
The 95 second blitzing of Kolle was followed up by Williams’ declaration to fight anyone willing to sign a contract. The hope was that other top welterweights – namely Margarito – would step up and attempt to disprove his claim of being the division’s absolute best.
None were willing, but Williams wasn’t about to allow such a frivolous detail from denying him one more fight in 2008. Onward to junior middleweight he looked, until he found a rare willing participant in Phillips, leading to Tall Paul’s fourth fight and third win of the year.
The Phillips fight came about after his two previously desired opponents sought higher paydays elsewhere. Pavlik chased the cash in what turned out to be a disastrous catchweight date with Bernard Hopkins. Margarito held out for the cash before agreeing to return to the ring. Williams kept on trucking in 2008, refusing to allow weight classes or dollar signs to slow him down.
Even more than taking the wait out of catchweight, the message delivered by Paul Williams this year has been that he’s willing to find and catch you at any weight.
R.I.P. MIKE POST, 1980-2008
The details surrounding his death remain cryptic even as this article is published, but it doesn’t make the untimely passing of Mike “Primetime” Post any less tragic.
The Canadian welterweight was just 28 years old when his life was cut short Friday evening. As a fighter, he managed an 18-1-1 record in a career largely spent on the club circuit while always pursuing bigger and better opportunity. The closest he came to the world stage was enjoying time as a sparring partner for former two-division titlist Miguel Cotto last year.
Outside the ropes, Post hoped to parlay his Hollywood looks into side careers as an actor or model.
On a personal level, I had the pleasure of serving a judge for one of his fights – a shutout win over Jeff Williams in June 2005 (on my 34th birthday, no less), and as a writer, promoter and matchmaker have enjoyed a friendship with his father, the always classy Greg Post.
For friends, family and fans in and around the Toronto area, the family will be receiving guests at noon on Wednesday December 3rd, 2008. Please contact the Post family for further details.
Fans can also pay their respects on Facebook and Myspace pages dedicated to the fallen fighter.
