Showing perhaps a sign of desperation, World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Paul Williams (33-0, 24KOs) is already looking beyond his next opponent Carlos Quintana, whom he fights on February 9th, as he said in a recent interview that he is interested in facing Shane Mosley after his bout with Quintana. Williams, 26, previously had a bout with Cintron almost arranged, only to have Cintron decide instead to attempt to set up a fight with Miguel Cotto or a rematch with Antonio Margarito.
Williams had to settle for Quintana, a fighter known mostly for his impressive 12-round decision over highly thought of prospect Joel Julio, as well as his 5th round one-sided stoppage loss to Miguel Cotto. However, beyond Cintron, there’s really few other options for Williams to choose from, as besides Floyd Mayweather Jr., Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito, Kermit Cintron, Shane Mosley and Andre Berto, there’s no other fighters with the big name clout that Williams is looking for with which to increase his star power.
Of those fighters, none of them are about to step in the ring with a fighter as dangerous as Williams. Mayweather, at this stage in his career, no longer takes on credible threats, mostly fighting either smaller fighters or over-the-hill types. Berto’s handlers would never let him fight Williams, especially after how Berto looked bad in his last two fights, and very beatable. Williams has already faced Margarito, and it’s too soon for a rematch with him. Margarito needs to rebuild his career before they meet up again, as he took a beating from Williams. Cotto is mainly looking for more established names, in particular Oscar De La Hoya or Mayweather.
Cotto looked mediocre in his last fight, a close unanimous decision over Shane Mosley, a bout in which Cotto failed to prove that he’s the superior fighter of the two. That pretty much leaves only Shane Mosley, who still has star appeal. I purposely left out mentioning De La Hoya, because no way would he consider fighting Williams. De La Hoya is mostly after big-name fighters as well, and wouldn’t consider fighting Williams for that reason, especially if it meant another bitter defeat for the aging De La Hoya. Mosley, though, is the ideal opponent, because he still has the star appeal, and a lot of fighting ability left in the tank.
Even more important than that, however, is that Mosley seems to thrive on taking on big challenges, and there is none better than Williams, who is considered to be the best fighter in the welterweight division by knowledgeable boxing fans. In his last three fights, Mosley has loosed awesome against Fernando Vargas and Cotto, winning two of three fights. However, Mosley seems to do poorly against taller fighters, losing twice to Vernon Forrest and Winy Wright. Mosely, though, has few options aside from Williams due to the lack of stars in the welterweight division.
Comments are closed.