By Jim Dower: Showtime’s February 18th card headlined by Paul Williams vs. Nobuhiro Ishida looks to be a really good card for boxing fans. As of now, the undercard will have heavyweight contender Chris Arreola facing a still to be determined opponent.

It’s supposed to be a high caliber opponent and not just one of the typical C level guys Arreola has been facing the last year. Besides these two fights, unbeaten IBF light heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud (23-0, 19 KO’s) will be defending his International Boxing Federation title against former WBA World light heavyweight champion Gabriel Campillo (21-3-1, 8 KO’s) in the first fight of the card, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN. Showtime is looking to put the finishing touches in arranging for this fight to be shown on the card.

Arreola, 30, will be the main draw for the card, which takes place in Corpus Christi, Texas. Arreola will bring in a lot of Mexican fans from the surrounding area, who wants to see him fight. Arreola has won his last six fights after losing fights to WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschk in 2009 and Tomasz Adamek in 2010. Those defeats caused Arreola to change his diet, lose 20lbs and take a much more serious outlook on his career. With the fight off, Arreola is now a busier fighter and is looking a lot better than he did before. He still needs to be tested against a quality heavyweight, though, because he’s been matched soft since Adamek fight. If Arreola can still knockout top contenders with his new slim weight, he could be ready to take on one of the Klitschko brothers for a world title in 2012.

Paul Williams will be facing Nobuhiro Ishida in the main event. Williams only fought once in 2011, winning a gift 12 round majority decision over Erislandy Lara in July 2011. Williams took a pounding from Lara and was hit with pretty much every left hand that Lara threw in the fight. Williams appeared to lose by at least 10 rounds, yet the judges gave him the fight. Afterwards, the judges were suspended by the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board indefinitely due the scoring of the fight.

If Williams can beat Ishida, his promoter wants to try and put him in for a third fight with Sergio Martinez. The two fighters have fought twice with Williams winning the first fight by a controversial 12 round decision in December 2009 and then getting knocked cold by Martinez in the 2nd round in their rematch in November 2010. If Williams can beat Martinez in the third fight, Williams will then be put back in with Lara in a rematch. I think those are terrible ideas for Williams, because both Lara and Martinez are southpaws with good power. It’s already been established that Williams has no defense against a straight left hand, and Martinez could badly hurt Williams if they fight again. Williams hasn’t looked like the same fighter since his first fight with Martinez where Williams took a lot of massive left hands from Martinez.

Ishida, 6’1”, has gotten popular because of his three-knockdown 1st round knockout win over James Kirkland in April 2011. Although not a big puncher, Ishida started off really fast in response to Kirkland’s blistering attack and what Ishida discovered in doing so is that he’s a dangerous puncher when he’s punching with speed and in flurries. His speed is what created his power in the Kirkland fight, and it seems that Ishida learned from that because he knocked out his last opponent Edison Espinoza in the 1st round as well last November.