Paul Williams has long coveted a fight with Manny Pacquiao, who last Saturday beat Antonio Margarito in their junior middleweight title fight at Cowboys Stadium.
But Pacquiao is promoted by Bob Arum, who is not likely to put the 5-foot-6
Even Williams’ promoter, Dan Goossen, realizes that.
“First and foremost, we’ve got one hell of a challenge,” Goossen said. “Sergio Martinez isn’t someone you look past.”
The two fought last December at the same venue in a non-title bout. Williams, a former welterweight champion and interim junior middleweight champion, won a majority decision in a thriller that saw both fighters taste the canvas in the first round.
“It was going back and forth, punches for punches, a lot of action,” Williams said. “I’m looking forward to that again.”
As good as their first fight was, this one has the potential to be even better because there are more elements involved.
Martinez wants to retain the middleweight championship he won from Kelly Pavlik four months after he first fought Williams. Williams wants that title badly, and he also knows a loss to Martinez could hurt his chances Advertisement of getting a megafight against a Pacquiao or a Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Add to that some animosity stemming from their first encounter, and it has the makings of a classic between two of the top-five pound-for-pound boxers in the world.
There were two bits of controversy that evolved from the first fight that peeved the Martinez side. Some ringside reporters had Williams winning, others had Martinez. Two of the judges – Julie Lederman and Lynne Carter – were in line with the closeness of the fight. Lederman had it 114-114 and Carter favored Williams 115-113.
Another genius, Pierre Benoist, gave it to Williams by a preposterous count of 119-110. This drew an uproar in the boxing community.
What seems to have rankled the Martinez camp even more is how Williams and his crew have intimated the fight would not have been close had he had proper time to prepare for Martinez.
Williams had been training for a fight with then-middleweight champion Pavlik. But when Pavlik pulled out for the second time with a hand injury, Goossen scrambled and made the fight with Martinez.
Pavlik is a right-hander, Martinez a southpaw. Pavlik is not quick-fisted, Martinez is very fast.
Williams had roughly three weeks to prepare for the switch, and he has made no bones about how much having a full camp will help him win easier than he did the first time.
“It’s going to make a whole lot of difference,” said Williams, 29. “I’m sparring with left-handed guys, instead of right-handed guys and then trying to switch up at the last minute. … If everybody thought the first fight was good, that’s me on … a three-week notice and look at me with a three-month notice.”
Goossen has predicted a knockout for his fighter based on the amount of preparation Williams has had.
“I actually believe in this one Paul is going to stop him in six or seven rounds,” Goossen said.
When Martinez (45-2-2, 24 KOs) was apprised of these comments, he did a slow burn.
“The reason they’re saying that is that they’re afraid,” said Martinez, 35, of Argentina.
“There is fear in that training camp and they’re saying that because they know deep in their hearts what happened in that first fight. I’m not here to make any excuses like Paul has been saying that he had a short camp and this and that.”
Martinez was asked about rumors that he actually had much more time to prepare for Williams than Williams did for him because he had advance knowledge that Pavlik was going to pull out for a second time. He scoffed.
“Paul Williams is a great fighter and a great champion,” Martinez said. “But he’s also a great talker, you know, he has excuses. He had the same amount of time as I did and that’s basically it. He should do more training and less talking.”
Williams (39-1, 27 KOs) promised there won’t be any talking once the bell rings.
“I’m going to do what I do best and we’ll put a real beating on this time,” said Williams, who demanded, and received this fight at a catch-weight of 158 pounds – two under the limit. “If the knockout comes, it comes. It’ll be much more brutal.”
Martinez guaranteed he’ll be able to do what he couldn’t do the first time – stop Williams inside the distance.
“I’m going to hurt him more than I did the first time,” Martinez said. “I anticipate the fight going into the late rounds, or it can happen at any moment in the fight where I think I can stop Paul Williams.”
Prior to this fight, HBO will replay Pacquiao-Margarito.
