By Dan Ambrose: Undefeated World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Paul Williams (33-0, 24 KOs) will be looking to set himself apart from the other welterweight champions when he goes up against Carlos Quintana (24-1, 19 KOs) on Saturday night at the Pechanga Resort & Casino, in Temecula, California. Williams, 26, is hoping to look impressive in the bout, considering that Quintana, 31, was destroyed in five brutal rounds by World Boxing Association champion Miguel Cotto in December 2006.

Williams, no doubt, will want to look as equally impressive against Quintana, hoping that will be a springboard for higher paying bouts in the future. Already, Williams, who stands 6’2”, is considered to the best welterweight in the division by many boxing fans, although he doesn’t get nearly as much press as the other champions – Floyd Mayweather Jr., Kermit Cintron and Cotto. Naturally, this is to be expected, since this is only Williams first title defense of his WBO belt in which he won last July against Antonio Margarito, another one of the top welterweights in the division.

In the fight against Margarito, Williams totally dominated the first half of the fight, averaging 100 punches thrown per round. However, he seemed to fade in the 2nd half, allowing Margarito to get back into the fight. Williams came back in the last round to pull out a close decision, but it still was a very impressive win. In that fight, Williams showed why he’s avoided by the other welterweights – his non-stop punching ability. He gave Margarito little chance to respond with his own shots because he never let up, at least in the first half of the fight.

Even in the later rounds, Williams was averaging an incredible 80 punches per round, making Margarito really have to exert himself in order to match him with his own shot. Williams, though, didn’t show much power, which is his biggest flaw, because it means that he has to work hard for his victories. He also tends to get hit a lot, as he generally stands directly in front of his opponent. Williams usually can get away with his defensive lapses by throwing a lot of punches and using his jab, but it may be a problem for him when he takes on a harder punching fighter like Cotto.

Quintana will likely not have enough power to test Williams chin and take advantage of his defensive limits. I see Williams putting a lot of pressure on Quintana, and never letting up with his shots. If Williams can apply pressure continuously for 5-6 rounds, I can see Quintana folding and getting stopped.

This is pretty much a do-or-die fight for Quintana, as he’s done little since pulling off a big upset of prospect Joel Julio in June 2006. It was good win at the time for Quintana, but he did next to nothing to follow it up other than getting blow out by Cotto.

If Williams wins impressively on Saturday night, I see a lot of things opening up for him, perhaps even one of the other champions may have courage enough to fight. I don’t, however, see Mayweather taking Williams on, because that would be a tough fight for Floyd, not the kind of fight that he would probably want to undertake at this point in his career. Cotto, though, may want to take the shot, especially with the lack of other big named fighters in the welterweight division.