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By Scoop Malinowski
Paul ‘The Punisher’ Williams has gained a reputation as a man not many welterweight boxers want to fight. But there is one man out there who keenly would like to step in the ring and do battle with the WBO titleholder - it’s Joshua Clottey, the newly crowned IBF king.
And it’s seems a bit strange that Williams is not jumping at the chance to increase his status and bargaining power by meeting Clottey on a date HBO has supposedly set aside for Williams and his advisor Al Haymon in November.
“Every time I bring up (a Williams fight) to Arum he says, Oh he’ll never fight us,” Clottey’s manager Vinny Scolpino said on Thursday. “And that would be decent money. You’ve got Al Haymon with HBO, you’d think there’d be decent money there.”
Clottey was willing to step in and fight Williams as his first title defense opponent earlier this year but did not get the chance. Team Williams opted to select Carlos Quintana as their opponent. “We’ll fight Paul Williams but he never steps up to the plate,” says Scolpino. “We’d love to fight but he never mentions our name. That’d be a good unification bout. I don’t think they have an opponent for the November 29 HBO date.”
HBO is supposedly holding the November 29 date open for Williams and a TBD. And what better choice of a TBD is there for Williams than a unification tiff with the mighty Ghanaian Joshua Clottey? Margarito is done for the year and is reported to be decided on an early ‘09 tune-up before a June rematch with Cotto. WBC champ Andre Berto is busy with Steve Forbes next month. Oscar De La Hoya will battle Manny Pacquiao in December.
Paul Williams and Clottey would seem like a perfect match-up for HBO and boxing fans for November 29. “If he’s open, we’re open, let’s make it,” says Scolpino. “But like I said, I’ve never seen him (Williams) talk once about Joshua Clottey in any of the articles on the internet.”
The fact of the matter is this: Nobody seems to want to fight Joshua Clottey, not even Paul Williams. “Yeah, it seems that way, don’t it,” says Scolpino. “We always get close. We need a big fight for the kid.”
Where is the new IBF champion right now? “He’s in Ghana now. Waiting for something to pop. Then he’ll come home (to the Bronx).”
Team Clottey is grateful for how Bob Arum has managed to turn Joshua’s career around with the big chance and huge victory over Zab Judah. “Bob is trying to make some things happen. Top Rank did what they said they would, they got us the Judah fight. They keep trying.”
But for some odd reason, Paul Williams, Al Haymon and the rest of Team Williams seem to want nothing to do with a unification bout against Joshua “The Hitter” Clottey.
Paul ‘The Punisher’ Williams has gained a reputation as a man not many welterweight boxers want to fight. But there is one man out there who keenly would like to step in the ring and do battle with the WBO titleholder - it’s Joshua Clottey, the newly crowned IBF king.
And it’s seems a bit strange that Williams is not jumping at the chance to increase his status and bargaining power by meeting Clottey on a date HBO has supposedly set aside for Williams and his advisor Al Haymon in November.
“Every time I bring up (a Williams fight) to Arum he says, Oh he’ll never fight us,” Clottey’s manager Vinny Scolpino said on Thursday. “And that would be decent money. You’ve got Al Haymon with HBO, you’d think there’d be decent money there.”
Clottey was willing to step in and fight Williams as his first title defense opponent earlier this year but did not get the chance. Team Williams opted to select Carlos Quintana as their opponent. “We’ll fight Paul Williams but he never steps up to the plate,” says Scolpino. “We’d love to fight but he never mentions our name. That’d be a good unification bout. I don’t think they have an opponent for the November 29 HBO date.”
HBO is supposedly holding the November 29 date open for Williams and a TBD. And what better choice of a TBD is there for Williams than a unification tiff with the mighty Ghanaian Joshua Clottey? Margarito is done for the year and is reported to be decided on an early ‘09 tune-up before a June rematch with Cotto. WBC champ Andre Berto is busy with Steve Forbes next month. Oscar De La Hoya will battle Manny Pacquiao in December.
Paul Williams and Clottey would seem like a perfect match-up for HBO and boxing fans for November 29. “If he’s open, we’re open, let’s make it,” says Scolpino. “But like I said, I’ve never seen him (Williams) talk once about Joshua Clottey in any of the articles on the internet.”
The fact of the matter is this: Nobody seems to want to fight Joshua Clottey, not even Paul Williams. “Yeah, it seems that way, don’t it,” says Scolpino. “We always get close. We need a big fight for the kid.”
Where is the new IBF champion right now? “He’s in Ghana now. Waiting for something to pop. Then he’ll come home (to the Bronx).”
Team Clottey is grateful for how Bob Arum has managed to turn Joshua’s career around with the big chance and huge victory over Zab Judah. “Bob is trying to make some things happen. Top Rank did what they said they would, they got us the Judah fight. They keep trying.”
But for some odd reason, Paul Williams, Al Haymon and the rest of Team Williams seem to want nothing to do with a unification bout against Joshua “The Hitter” Clottey.
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