By Lem Satterfield
Former champion Paul Williams has split victories with the boxer most experts regard as one of the top three pound-for-pound fighters in the world, WBC middleweight king Sergio Martinez. Williams (39-2, 27 KO) won a close decision over Martinez (46-2-2, 25 KOs) in December 2009. Martinez got revenge in their November rematch, by knocking Williams out with a crushing left hand in the second round.
George Peterson, trainer Williams, views the punch that Martinez used to knock his boxer out as desperation move from the pressure being applied in the fight. Peterson is confident that Williams would have stopped Martinez in the later rounds of the fight.
"Paul was in control of the fight until he got caught. And, there's no doubt that he would have stopped this guy. Absolutely no doubt. Because, see this guy is a guy who wants to fight the way that he wants to fight. This guy can't fight a three-minute round. We knew that," Peterson said.
"We knew that the only chance that Sergio Martinez had was to stop Paul. And, sure enough, in desperation, and with his eyes closed, just ducking his head and throwing a punch, he landed. When Sergio Martinez landed that punch, he didn't even know that it had landed. Sergio Martinez was just as surprised as everybody else, that's the way that I saw him. But let's not take nothing away from him. He won. We're not crying about that. But what we've said is that, 'Hey, we'll be back.'"
Williams will soon being preparing for his return. Peterson says there is no reason for a tuneup, they are going straight for a big fight at 147, 154 or 160-pounds. The knockout loss has not improved the fear factor in fighting Williams. Peterson has not received any calls regarding fighters who are willing to get in the ring with Williams.
"We don't need no tuneup. Paul Williams is a professional fighter. He don't need a tuneup. We'll go right back and fight anybody that will give us a chance. You see what I'm saying? And I think that we'll get more callers this time because before, we got, not just very few, but, actually none before. So, I figure that we'll get more callers this time than before," Peterson said.
"We'll fight anybody that will step onto the scale from 147 to 160. That's anyone. Any warm-blooded bodied person. We haven't received any calls."
Lem Satterfield is the boxing editor at AOL FanHouse and the news editor at BoxingScene.com. To read more from Lem Satterfield, go to AOL FanHouse by Clicking Here .
