By Nate Anderson: It was a bout that WBO welterweight champion Paul Williams (33-1, 24 KOs) was supposed to easily win, but it quickly turned into a nightmare for him as Carlos Quintana (25-1, 19 KOs) used movement and fast combinations to pound out a surprising 12-round unanimous decision over Williams. The fight, as it turned out, was a major upset since few people had given Quintana much of a shot at beating the lanky 6’2” Williams. It isn’t that Quintana was thought to be a bad fighter, because he was clearly one of the best fighters in the welterweight division going into his February 2008 fight with Williams, but he didn’t appear to be in the same class judging by his previous fights.

Indeed, Quintana, 31, had fought only two fighters that I would consider quality, beating promising contender Joel Julio in an equally shocking one-sided 12-round unanimous decision in June 2006, and then losing in a 5th round stoppage to Miguel Cotto, a fight which was a total blowout for Cotto. Based on those two fights, it was hard to tell which one was the real Quintana – the fighter that had embarrassed the top rated Quintana in a lopsided decision win or the fighter that had been so easily dominated by Cotto in December 2006? As it seems, most people felt that Quintana was more of the latter. At the time of their previous fights, Williams, 26, was thought by some to be the top welterweight in the division, the fighter that everyone was afraid to fight. Naturally, it was assumed that he’d be far too good for the aging, under-achieving Quintana to be able to deal with.

Williams, a noted volume puncher, who regularly averages well over 100 punches per round and whom had previously beaten Antonio Margarito in July 2007 to take his WBO welterweight title in a close fight. Williams had jumped all over Margarito from the get go, battering him with non-stop punches from the first round and not letting him get off his own shots. It wasn’t until the 7th round of the fight that, Margarito, now looking badly flustered, was able to finally kick start his offense, coming on strong in the final six rounds to make the fight close. However, by then it was too late, and Williams did just enough to get the win.

Going from that fight into his matchup with Quintana, who could blame Williams for being a little overconfident, for he appeared to be the better fighter with the much more impressive offense. It was hard to imagine that Quintana, a fighter who averages 50-60 punches thrown per round, could compete with Williams who typically throws twice that amount. However, instead of letting Williams walk him down and unload on him with his rain of shots, Quintana used sideways movement, his jab, and sharp flurries to tag Williams and keep him off his game. Without a stationary target standing in front of him, attempting to trade with him, Williams was a t a loss for what to do with Quintana.

Unable to use his long jab (because he’d never learned how to use it properly to begin with), Williams had no plan ‘B’ to fall back on when his initial strategy of trying to overwhelm Quintana with punches failed to work for him. After the first six rounds, it was abundantly clear that Williams was in deep trouble, and needed to come up with another game plan or else risk losing the fight to Quintana. Instead of making any adjustments, Williams stuck stubbornly with his initial game plan, as he constantly stalked Quintana, trying to work his way in close so that he could unload with his non-stop flurries.

Quintana, though, was having none of it, and continued moving, using his jab and brief flurries to befuddle Williams. By the end of the fight, it was clear that Williams was a beaten fighter, looking badly tired, a little more than embarrassed and with bloody cuts over each eye. It was a bad lesson for Williams, showing him that he needed to come up with another style to fall back onto when he fights a mover like Quintana. Williams’ old style of fighting, though good against slower fighters and those that like to slug, was clearly unsuitable for a boxer/puncher like Quintana.

This time out, Williams will have to show more than he did last time, and will have to prove that he’s learned from his defeat. The rumors from his training camp say just that, mentioning that he’s now looking like a completely different fighter, using his jab and his height for the first time in his career. That’s good to hear but it remains to be seen whether Williams can use those new skills against a fighter with the speed and movement of Quintana. Their last fight wasn’t even remotely close, so Williams will have to have improved a lot of he plans on winning.

As much as I like Williams, I don’t think he’s going to be able to defeat Quintana. He just doesn’t have the hand speed, movement or the craftiness that Quintana possesses in order to beat him. I see this as another fairly lopsided win for Quintana. Williams, I think, should have moved in another direction against a fighter that’s more suited to his high volume attack style. That’s not to say that Quintana is the greatest, because I see a number of welterweights in the division that have the styles to beat him, like Shane Mosley, Andre Berto, Floyd Mayweather, Cotto, Antonio Margarito, Joshua Clottey, Luis Collazo and Kermit Cintron. But, in Williams’ case, he doesn’t have the tools needed to beat a fighter like Quintana, and I doubt he’ll ever have them.