Margarito is not thw REAL WW champ.

[Zarco]

I think Margarito has more of a right to be the real champ over williams. WTF has Williams done? His claim to fame was by barely beating a unprepared Margarito, he barely beat him, it wasnt a spectacular win. Williams first 12 round fight was just a year before he fought margarito and had only fought 2 12 rounders before margarito. Never held a title before, was never even talked about in boxing when Margarito vs elite fighters was being talked about. He lost to Quintana who Margarito would of destroyed, I would like to see PW knock Quintana out for a third time to see if he can do it. Paul Williams doesent even have a fan base, the only reason his name comes up is because of Margarito haters.

[Drunken Cat]

Margarito is an alphabet titholder. He is ranked #1 by Ring mag due to beating and replacing Cotto. In order for him to be a WW champ, he needs to face Paul Williams, ranked #2.

I'm assuming you are using the Ring Magazine logic there, which states that a #1 must fight a #2 or #3 in order for the winner to be declared a champion. However, I have to say that the Ring's method of crowning champions is quite flawed for a number of reasons.

When Margarito fought Cotto, the top 4 Ring Welterweights were as follows:

1. Miguel Cotto
2. Shane Mosely
3. Paul Williams
4. Antonio Margarito

Thus, although Cotto-Margarito was regarded as the fight to crown the #1 Welterweight, by the Ring's logic, for Cotto to have fought for a championship, he would have had to face either Mosely (a fighter who he had recently fought and beat) or Paul Williams.

Following Margarito-Cotto, the Ring top 4 have shifted as follows:

1. Antonio Margarito
2. Paul Williams
3. Miguel Cotto
4. Shane Mosely

Now, for Margarito (the new #1) to fight for a Ring championship he must face Williams or Cotto. Surely, Margarito-Williams is a worthy fight for crowning a division champ at welterweight. However, it seems a bit silly that, by the Ring's logic, Margarito could also immediately rematch Cotto and it would be for a championship, whereas the first encounter was merely a fight among two top 4 contenders. To take a second example, if Margarito were to now fight and defeat Shane Mosely, it would not be regarded as a champion-crowning fight by Ring because Mosely has been bumped out of the top 3, as a direct result of Margarito's victory.

Essentially, I find it preposterous that the particular rankings of two fighters at a given moment should be the only determinant in whether a fight is or not a championship fight, particularly when rankings are themselves so subject to fluctuation and arbitrary decisions.

Therefore, The Ring has in essence attempted to use one ambiguity to address another. That is, they have sought to apply the somewhat arbitrary and ambiguous act of assigning individual fighter rankings to the ambiguous act of crowning new champions. Thus while the Ring's system may be good in principle, I do not see it as being effective for denoting new champions.

[Drunken Cat]

If Berto retires today... you would look back on his career, and wonder how the **** he got a belt, because he has not fought a single fighter who will be remembered 5 years from now. He has 0 claim of the true WW championship.

Margarito has fought and beaten the best names in the division compared to everyone else, so he has the best claim, resume wise, to the true WW championship.

Unfortunately, Williams, even though he hasn't beaten a bunch of big names like Margarito, has beaten Margarito himself, so he holds a share of the claim to the WW crown, because of his head-to-head win.

Only a rematch can limit the number of fighters who have a claim to that crown from 2 down to 1.

I think you make some good points, also I think it is pretty clearly the case that Margarito does need to beat Williams in order to really be considered THE MAN at WW. Although I can see a case for him based off the Cotto win, beating Williams would be necessary to really clear up any doubt and to truly cement his place at the top of the division.

I hope they fight before too long, although I would like to see Margarito in another big money fight first because he's a guy who has paid his dues and I feel that he deserves a fight to capitalize on his newly claimed notoriety before battling Williams again.

[markfrombrookly]

Margarito and Williams are the only Welterweights that have a legit claim to being the Man at Welterweight. That's why they MUST fight each other.

[MANGLER]

Paul beat Tony before he was #1, so Paul ain't #1. Tony is #1 right now, but I mos def agree wit those who say he must beat Williams to be the champ. They'll rematch soon enough, but until they do Tony's got more claim to the throne than Williams.

[2501 v2.0]

ask the experts. most consider him the champ. if you disagree, go ahead and tell me why your opinion is more qualified.

[Bobby Shaw]

Margaritto lives in fear of Paul Williams his father.he has no intention of getting back into the ring with Williams because he knows he will leave the ring without the strap.

As for beating Cotto,anyone who was'nt expecting that knows Zilch about boxing.Williams could have done the same with Cotto and Floyd would have done worse things to Cotto.

Williams is the best welterweight at the moment and Margaritto has to beat him to be called the best ww

[Flawless.]

Cotto is the real WW champ

[Scott9945]

ask the experts. most consider him the champ. if you disagree, go ahead and tell me why your opinion is more qualified.

That might be the freakiest sig I've ever seen.

[Gareth Ivanovic]

We will know who the best WW in the world is once Williams and Margarito fight again.