Paul Williams: How come Cotto, Mayweather, Mosley, and Pacquiao Won’t Fight Him?

By Boxing News - 06/18/2009 - Comments

By Jason Kim: It’s so sad that the one welterweight that none of the so-called best welterweights in the division like Shane Mosley, Miguel Cotto and Floyd Mayweather, won’t fight Paul Williams (37-1, 27 KO‘s). Nowadays when you hear Williams’ name mentioned as an opponent for any of those fighters or Manny Pacquiao, people say, ‘Williams isn’t a welterweight, so why should they fight him?’

I see that as people making excuses for these fighters, because Williams has made it clear over and over again that he’s floating between divisions because none of those fighters would give him a fight. Williams is still active and ready to fight at welterweight, light middleweight or middleweight.

He doesn’t care which division it is and will fight whichever big name will man up and fight him. But the major players are ignoring him, and have formed a small clique where only their names are mentioned as being the best fighters in the welterweight division.

It’s such a joke, because none of them want to face Williams and have to suffer what will in all likelihood end up being a beating along the same lines that Williams gave to his last opponent Winky Wright in a 12 round lopsided decision victory in April.

Williams may not have the big names that Mayweather, Cotto, Mosley or Pacquiao have, but he’s been severely hampered because none of the big names, aside from Antonio Margarito and Winky Wright, were brave enough to fight him.

That won’t change in the future I’m afraid to say even if Williams were to campaign strictly in the welterweight division and not look for fights outside of the division. Heck, if Williams were to stay at welterweight only, he’d have to be content with defending whichever title that he grabs.

Williams’ case is kind of tragic when you think about it, because right now he can still make the weight class but has been frozen out by the other top fighter who want no part of him and his huge height, reach and high work rate.

But in the future, Williams probably won’t be able to make welterweight without draining himself badly to get down there and fight. Do you honestly think anyone will give him a fight in a few years? Not a chance. The only way that Williams will get one of those fighters to step in the ring with him is if he starts looking terrible and barely winning his fights.

At that point, probably all of them will jump at the chance to fight him like a pack of hounds jumping for some steak. But that is so sad, because none of them are willing to step up and fight him now while he’s capable of fighting at welterweight.

Mosley, 37, obviously won’t be around much longer due to his increasing age, so unless he steps up and fights Williams now, it just won’t ever happen. I highly doubt that Mosley will even consider a fight with Williams because he’s the type of opponent that Mosley has traditionally done badly against.

Right now, I would pick Williams to beat Mayweather, Cotto, Mosley and Pacquiao by a lopsided decision. None of them would be able to match up with him and his high work rate. It’s too bad, because Williams will probably have to be content with fighting lesser names for most of his career until he starts showing vulnerability.

And that probably won’t start happening for another five or so years from now. By then, Cotto, Mayweather, Pacquiao and Mosley will likely be out of the sport or badly degraded as fighters.



Comments are closed.