If you find yourself tuning in to HBO this weekend to see a replay of Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s virtuoso performance against Shane Mosley and asking who the 6’1″ junior middleweight southpaw throwing 100 punches a round at his opponent is, you’re not alone.
The fact is Paul Williams continues to dwell in anonymity as far as the casual boxing fan is concerned. And there’s really no explanation for it.
With only one loss on his resume, Williams is one of the best fighters in the world today. Inside Fights’ May rankings had him at his highest rank yet at number three. That puts him behind only Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.
Not bad company for a guy most people on the streets of Anytown, USA wouldn’t recognize.
He’s certainly earned that spot. Over the last three years, Williams has torn through three different weight classes – welterweight to middleweight – literally taking on all comers. There’s no asking how the man would perform in various weight classes – which is the question that “pound-for-pound” was created to answer. He answers the question in the ring every time he fights.
Starting in June of 2008, Williams competed as a welterweight, then as a middleweight, then as a junior middleweight, then as a middleweight and back to junior middleweight again. He claims he can still fight at 147 pounds but was more or less run out of the division due to a lack of opponents.
A division that includes Mosley and Joshua Clottey – two men who have historically found no opponent too risky to fight.
It began when Williams soundly beat the self-proclaimed “most feared man in boxing,” Antonio Margarito, thus assuming that moniker for himself. Unable to find a bigger name opponent, he took on Carlos Quintana, who shocked the boxing world by outslicking Williams. Four months later, Paul exacted revenge, knocking Quintana out cold in under three minutes.
It wasn’t until this time last year that Williams finally got a date with a big name nearing the twilight of his career – Winky Wright. After twelve rounds, if the veteran Wright had won a round, it was hard to say which. Yes, Winky was past his best. No, it wouldn’t have made any difference.
In his last fight, Williams narrowly outpointed the current Middleweight Champion, Sergio Martinez, in an absolute war. Had more people known who Martinez was coming into that fight, Williams may have sealed his fame that night last December.
And he may have earned it anyway. How many fans show up and tune in for his fight against Kermit Cintron this weekend will indicate that. Cintron can be an action fighter when he wants to be, and Williams brings it every night. The recipe is there for a great fight that could leave fans – even the casual ones – demanding more.
Coming off his biggest win and most exciting fight to date, it’s the moment of truth for Paul Williams this weekend. In Cintron, he’ll have the right opponent to make an impression. And he’ll have an audience – even if it’s mostly driven by the Mayweather-Mosley replay.
But it’s up to Williams to make himself the attraction going forward. A convincing – or, better – a dominant win over Cintron will get people’s attention. Calling out Mayweather and Pacquiao in his postfight interview, that could get him a fight.
Not with either of them of course, but in time, who knows? Boxing is all about getting people talking. Getting people talking gets people watching.
If Williams plays his cards right this Saturday, viewers might come away from the program asking why Mayweather isn’t fighting the tall 6’1″ junior middleweight southpaw throwing 100 punches a round at his opponent.
