A Letter to Paul Williams

Dear Mr. Paul "The Punisher" Williams     

      Its a shame when you fight every fighter placed in front of you, defeat every single one of them (71% of which by knockout over the course of 35 fights) and yet, not be able to defend your title.  Well, actually it is not a shock considering today's environment in professional boxing.  You have champions that would rather retire than fight, fighters who claim they want to fight the best, then choose to face bums.  It is ridiculous.  Even the fighters who choose to take small chances say, "Hold on, that is TOO RISKY" when it comes to fighting the best opposition out there.  Case in point, you, Paul "The Punisher" Williams.  Arguably one, if not the best, welterweight in the division today.  You may be one of the many alphabet soup champions in the division, but what makes you even worse in the eyes of many "contenders," promoters, and other "champions" is that you have a hard earned victory over another one of the most feared fighters in boxing, Antonio Margarito (funny thing, this man and his promoter don't want anything too do with you either). When your name is mentioned in many boxing circles, you hear words like "incredibly talented" and "abnormally gifted."  When you speak after a fight, you hear the rarely heard sentences from fighters these days, such as "I'll fight anyone, any place, anytime," and you can tell in your voice that you mean it.  Yet, no one will fight You.  It has gotten so bad that in your next match against Andy Kolle (on 9/25/2008), you have to move up two weight classes to middleweight and fight on the VERSUS network, all in the name of remaining busy and not having to wait to fight until next year.

     Its alright though.  I mean, why would anyone want to fight you anyway?  You have a freakish reach advantage and abnormal height for Light Heavyweights, let alone welterweights!  Your chin is made of solid rock, and you have a work rate that is frightening (100 punches a round)!  Maybe it is your willingness to call out these "champions?"  At a time when people were afraid to even mention Margarito's name (or unjustly dismissing him) you said for two or three straight fights that you would fight him.  Finally, your promoter (Dan Goosen) had to take his promoter (Bob Arum) to court in order to make the fight happen (never mind the stories of how you were dismissed from Margarito's training camp for hurting him during sparring).  Finally, after all the shenanigans, you got him in the ring(Lets not mention the fact that you had an eight month layoff due to all the nonsense).  Over 12 rounds, your speed and work rate overwhelmed the hard nosed champion, resulting in a close but unanimous decision victory for yourself!  After this fight, the floodgates were supposed to open for you, but sadly enough, they did not.  You wound up not fighting for another seven months.  Not until you went in on a bad night against Carlos Quintana.  Now, I will not say that the layoff was the lone reason for you losing that fight, but when you knocked Mr. Quintana out in 2:15 of the first round, that should say alot for a fighter of your caliber when you are allowed to remain active.  Maybe that is what is so scary about you.  Wait a minute though, is this not a sport of men who aren't supposed to be afraid of anything?  This is a sport where you match wits against another man in order to prove who truly is the best, right?  What is the problem then?

      Why is it so hard for this man to receive a match.  Is this not boxing?  Is this not the ultimate one on one sport?  "Two men enter, one man go" and all that jazz, right?  If you mention this to other boxers, a lot of them might reply, "Man, you watch too many Westerns!"  Only in boxing do you find this mentality.  No one in UFC does things like this.  I can imagine how many of those gladiators hate the thought of stepping in the ring with Anderson Silva, BUT THEY DO IT!  They embrace the challenge and in doing so, accept the consequences for them, as well as celebrate the chance to reap the reward for victory!  One can only imagine how many sucked teeth and angry looks players in the New York Giants locker room may have had, if only for a moment, when they found out they were gonna have to play the Patriots in the Super Bowl.  However, rather than complain, they showed up with their A game and are the defending NFL Super Bowl Champions because of it.  You don't find that in boxing.  Instead, you have men who claim they are trying to make fights for the fans, but then turn and fight men who weigh 25 lbs less than them and claim it is in the name of legacy!  I guess Tyson in his prime should've been trying to fight Hagler, huh?  It is not like there is a shortage of good fighters, just a shortage of men with the fortitude to step into the ring and truly test their skills. 

     I apologize to you, Paul.  Its a damn shame when there are so many fighters out there, and yet no fights to be made.  If your a welterweight, you should be able to fight at welterweight.  Maybe you should have been born in a different time?  A time when in order to claim you were the best, you fought the best.  Not at a time when in order to claim your the best you should offer the outmatched, undersized, over-aged, and untalented the most money!  Does that sound right to you?  Well it does not sound good to me!  Maybe you should have been around maybe 15-20 years before when Hagler, Hearns, Pryor, Whitaker, Leonard, Camacho, Chavez, Norris, and others were still fighting.  Yeah, that is the era when you were supposed to come around, because now, men like that don't exist.  All we have is a bunch of posers who almost need to be forced into the ring.  These men don't want a challenge, heck, it almost seems like they don't want to fight, yet they chose it as a profession.  Yeah, that's what I think it is Paul, wrong place and wrong time, but oh well!  There is always the jr. middle and middleweights right?  RIGHT!