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By Thomas Gerbasi - Maybe Dan Goossen was right along.
When all those press releases went out over the years - you remember the ones - touting his fighter, Paul Williams, as the most feared man in all of boxing, most of us chuckled, sent kudos to Big Dan, and went back to our business.
But in 2010, as boxing celebrates Manny Pacquiao as an eight division world titlist, a news item that was the third leading story on CNN last Sunday morning, you can’t help but think of Williams’ place in the sport’s pecking order and wonder why the only hardware in his trophy case is a WBO welterweight title belt and an interim WBO junior middleweight trinket.
He’s 39-1 as a pro, 29 years old, and a decade into a career that began in 2000. All numbers that don’t raise any eyebrows in and of themselves, and when you add in two divisional titles, they are even more impressive. But the point is, when people really started taking notice of ‘The Punisher’, let’s say around 2006, when he blasted out Sergio Rios, Walter Matthysse, and Sharmba Mitchell in successive bouts, the thought wasn’t if Williams would ever win a world title, but how many of them would he collect before calling it quits. A pleasing fight style, a 6 foot 1 frame and the willingness to wage war wherever the best bouts presented themselves made these thoughts come easy, and the buzz only got louder when he won his first title by defeating Antonio Margarito in 2007. [Click Here To Read More]
When all those press releases went out over the years - you remember the ones - touting his fighter, Paul Williams, as the most feared man in all of boxing, most of us chuckled, sent kudos to Big Dan, and went back to our business.
But in 2010, as boxing celebrates Manny Pacquiao as an eight division world titlist, a news item that was the third leading story on CNN last Sunday morning, you can’t help but think of Williams’ place in the sport’s pecking order and wonder why the only hardware in his trophy case is a WBO welterweight title belt and an interim WBO junior middleweight trinket.
He’s 39-1 as a pro, 29 years old, and a decade into a career that began in 2000. All numbers that don’t raise any eyebrows in and of themselves, and when you add in two divisional titles, they are even more impressive. But the point is, when people really started taking notice of ‘The Punisher’, let’s say around 2006, when he blasted out Sergio Rios, Walter Matthysse, and Sharmba Mitchell in successive bouts, the thought wasn’t if Williams would ever win a world title, but how many of them would he collect before calling it quits. A pleasing fight style, a 6 foot 1 frame and the willingness to wage war wherever the best bouts presented themselves made these thoughts come easy, and the buzz only got louder when he won his first title by defeating Antonio Margarito in 2007. [Click Here To Read More]
) with no punching power (Winky 
). His best win was Margarito and that was a close fight. He lost to Quintana wide, and really should have lost to Cintron and Martinez.
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