Quintana vs. Williams: Will Paul Be Any Better?

By Boxing News - 06/03/2008 - Comments

williams4644481.jpgBy Sean McDaniel: It’s hard to believe that it’s only been four months since former WBO welterweight champion Paul Williams (33-1, 24 KOs) was soundly beaten by challenger Carlos Quintana (25-1, 19 KOs) in a unanimous decision that was much more definitive than the final judges’ scores – 116-112, 116-112 and 115-113 – would have you believe. For those who may have forgotten, Quintana, 31, pulled off a shocking upset in February 2008, beating a fighter that many felt was the best welterweight in the division at the time. Williams had recently defeated Antonio Margarito, the WBO welterweight champion, arguably the toughest welterweight in the division bar none.

There was was only Miguel Cotto and Floyd Mayweather who stood in Williams way before being crowned as the top fighter in the division. Certainly not Quintana, who had briefly had his 15 minutes of fame with a win over the young Colombian prospect Joel Julio in June 2006.

Quintana’s moment of fame past just as quick when he was immediately slapped down in his very next fight, losing in a 5th round stoppage to Cotto in late December 2006. Instead of seeing that fight as an indication of how good Cotto is as a fighter, it appears that Williams, like a lot of people, assumed falsely that Quintana wasn’t as good he appeared in the Julio fight. What else could explain for Williams seeming lack of alternative plans for back up strategy’s in his fight with Quintana? To be sure, Williams fought much like he always had before, throwing lots of punches and trying to overwhelm Quintana.

The difference was, Williams was missing most of them, while getting hit often by counter shots from Quintana. Instead of having someone right there in front of him like he usually has in his fights, Williams often had to go looking for Quintana, who kept on the move for most of the fight. It was clear immediately that Williams couldn’t fight when being forced to move. His whole offensive style, it seems, is based on him needing to get in position squarely in front of his opponent, where he would set up his offense. He wasn’t skilled at boxing, or setting up his offense on the fly like other fighters in the mold of Margarito. In other words, Williams couldn’t just take what he could get in terms of offense, instead he had an entire ritual he would perform when getting in position to start throwing punches.

Quintana and his team picked up on this while watching fights of his, and were able to counter act this by moving constantly and throwing fast flurries, then getting away from him. Quintana showed that Williams wasn’t as good as what many people had perceived him to be, and showed that his boxing skills are rather ordinary when uncovered and brought to the light of day. Williams appears to be taking a major gamble by fighting Quintana immediately, just four months after the previous loss. It’s either a stroke of brilliance on Williams part or a foolhardy move, a poorly thought idea without regard to the disastrous consequences.

Other than sparring, Williams will have had no matches in order to fine tune his boxing skills, which one would hope that he had worked on a great deal, specifically on his lack of jabs. Last time out, Williams showed that despite being the taller fighter at 6’1”, he didn’t have any kind of jab to speak of. This enabled the shorter Quintana to make contact with him at close quarters, and to beat him to the punch with faster shots.

Frankly, I’m not sure if Williams ever will be able to throw a good jab, though, because he seems to have limited ability to stretch his arms out at length. Both arms seem to be almost curled at all times, at when he punches almost everything comes in the form of a hook. That’s going to be a problem for him in learning how to throw a jab, and I have doubts that he’ll have improved enough in that department to beat a fighter like Quintana.