By William Mackay: Former welterweight and junior middleweight champion Paul Williams is moving back down to the welterweight division to go after the bigger money fights against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. Williams is back moving down to welterweight because he’s been unable to get the big money fights he had been hoping to get when he moved up in weight.
In hindsight, Williams likely would have been much better off had he not moved out of the welterweight division to begin with. By moving up in weight, Williams has given the top welterweights excuses for not fighting him by saying he’s not in the same weight class. Had Williams stayed at welterweight all this time, he would have likely fought Shane Mosley and Andre Berto at the very least.
And he would have been able to put a lot of pressure on Mayweather and Pacquiao to have to fight him if they wanted to be considered the best in the welterweight division. That doesn’t mean that they necessarily would, because Pacquiao chose to fight David Diaz when he was looking for a title at lightweight instead of the two fighters that were considered the best in the division at the time Nate Campbell and Juan Diaz.
And Pacquiao might go after a rematch against WBA junior middleweight in order to snatch an 8th world title. But Cotto isn’t considered the best at junior middleweight; WBC title holder Sergio Martinez is, and he’s not even being mentioned as a possible opponent for Pacquiao. However, Williams would at least have a good chance of fighting Berto. I seriously doubt that Mosley would want to fight Williams, so that fight is probably not going to happen.
On second thought, I’m not so sure that Berto would be eager to fight Williams either. I can see Berto dodging Williams forever without fighting him unless Williams becomes Berto’s mandatory challenger. In that case, Berto would have no choice but to fight him or risk being stripped. I can see that scenario too, because I think Williams would really mess Berto up with his long arms and high punch volume.
The one question that you have to wonder about Williams is how strong he’ll be in moving back down to welterweight. He’s been fighting at 154 and 160 and looking almost skeletal when having to make the 154 limit. If he now has to boil down even lower at 147, it might be the same as it was when Williams was fighting at welterweight previously. He could be weaker and not as effective. But that also could be a good thing because at least he could get fights from some of these guys.
But honestly, I think there’s zero chance of Mayweather or Pacquiao fighting him. Pacquiao is near retirement and is looking to either fight Mayweather for a big money fight or fight either Cotto or Antonio Margarito. Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum probably isn’t going to even consider putting the 5’6” Pacquiao in with the 6’2” Williams for a fight that might not make any more money that Pacquiao’s fight against Joshua Clottey in March.
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