By Erik Smith: If you’re like most people, you’re wondering what’s former WBO welterweight champion Paul “The Punisher” Williams (33-1, 24 KOs) going to do next. After many people in the boxing world had crowned Williams prematurely, suggesting that he was the top fighter in the division, he was quickly brought back down to earth last Saturday night when he lost a 12-round unanimous decision to challenger Carlos Quintana. If the fight had been close, one could suggest that it was just a bad night for Williams. However, he was pretty much dominated throughout the fight, by a fighter that few people would consider as one of the top four in the welterweight division.
The loss is especially disappointing for Williams because it removes any possibility for future big money fights against opponents like Miguel Cotto and Kermit Cintron, both of whom Williams had been interested in fighting. As we see now, Williams would have likely have been beaten by either of those two fighters, because of his lack of power. Against Quintana, Williams was shown that he couldn’t punch with the same kind of power that Quintana could, and no matter how often Williams landed, it couldn’t equal out the type of shots that he was getting hit with.
Quintana, however, doesn’t hit nearly as hard as both Cintron and Cotto, which would seem to indicate that Williams would have been in deep trouble if he had met up with either one of them. Sure, Williams can work on some of his problems, like learning how to use his jab so that he can utilize his height better, or perhaps learn to lean back and cover up more so that he’s not hit as often as he was against Quintana. Those two would help him a lot, but I don’t see anything that can help William’s lack of power. He’s stuck the way he is – a slapper and nothing will change that.
Even worse for Williams, however, is that in changing his style, which he surely needs to do, he’ll be less of an offensive threat, because of what made him good in the past was his non-stop punching. However, against bigger punchers, like Cotto, Cintron, Quintana, Andre Berto and Joshua Clottey, Williams would be in over his head against any one of them. His height would help him, if he used a jab and was able to move well. He doesn’t, though, because he rarely uses his jab, and his footwork is average at best. I still think Williams is good enough to beat the lower top 10 fighters, like Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Jesus-Soto Karaas, but beyond that, I see Williams getting beaten almost every time out. It’s too bad, because he bit of fresh air for the somewhat stale welterweight division.