Memo to Sergio Martinez: Stop wasting your breath on Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. And add Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. to the list of fighters whose names should stop rolling off your lips. Instead of pining for matchups that will never be, you would be better served to focus your post Matthew Macklin attention on a Bermuda Triangle of hard-hitting junior middleweights who probably do have the guts to step inside the ring with you. Tall Paul Williams, still only 30 years old and a lot younger than you, returns for a Feb. 18 shootout with as tall (6-1) Japanese bombtosser Nobuhiro Ishida on Feb. 18 in Corpus Christi, Texas. Ishida, of course, is the 24-6-2, 36 year old guy who shocked us with a three knockdowns, first round KO over heavy hitter James Kirkland. Ishida treated the “Mandingo Warrior” like a dust mop. Any way you slice it, Williams (40-2, 27 KOs and 1-1 versus Martinez) and Ishida is an inspired bit of matchmaking. Standing on the sidelines as he preps for a March bout against Carlos Molina and coming off a sizzling six round stoppage of Alfredo Angulo is the fiercely trained by Ann Wolfe Kirkland. Kirkland, 27, seems to be a still improving fighter and may be able to survive if not walk through the heavy blows of just about any foe now. So let’s say Tall Paul esclipses Ishida. Then Williams fights Kirkland assuming Kirkland whips Molina which he should do. Suddenly, we’ve got a juicy, PPV TV worthy main event, the Kirkland-Williams winner takes on Maravilla. It’s the stuff that boxing dreams are made of.
