The Punisher (Paul Williams) Punished his 4th fighter in his 4th Weight Class

On April 11, Paul Williams defeated Winky Wright with, what seemed like, little effort. In order to appreciate this fighter it is necessary to understand his background. He was undefeated with a 32-0 record when he beat Antonio Margarito. For his next fight he challenged Carlos Quintana. He didn't look his strongest and he lost by a unanimous decision. His following fight, he fought Quintana again and avenged his loss with authority, by a TKO in the 1st round. Paul Williams then beat Andy Kolle, Verno Phillips, and, after last night, Winky Wright.

The slender 6'1" fighter is a total package. He has great head movement, quick hands, an amazing reach, and can dominate on the inside. He felt nobody wanted to fight him, because he was too good, so he jumped up several weight classes. The only big name fighter who wanted him was Winky Wright, who had come off of an almost two year break. Wright had previously been embarrassed by Bernard Hopkins in July of 2007. To Wright's credit, he fought very well but it was not good enough to beat Paul Williams. A veteran strategy that Wright did was hold the arm of Williams on the referees blind side. By this I mean the arm that was on the far side of the referee, so the referee could not see it. This did not deter Paul Williams who in the 6th round reached under and around his own right arm with a left uppercut and connected for a powerful hit. I had never seen this done before. Wright used all the tricks he could but he still fell short. I scored the fight for Paul Williams winning every round, so did judge Adelaide Bird 120-108.

Paul Williams has been very good at four different weight classes, so the question is; what weight will he stay at? He claimed he was willing to fight whoever his promoter put in front of him, he even hinted for somebody to come out of retirement, meaning Floyd Mayweather Jr. I feel he is good and can be good at any weight class he chooses but he will be best at Middleweight. I feel he could beat Felix Sturm with ease and give Kelly Pavlik some problems. The latter being a harder fight, he might not want to take. The fact is this, Paul Williams is a great fighter and he doesn't get big time fights. He needs to keep doing what he is doing, beating all his competition. Then he might draw out a big time fighter for a challenge. At twenty-seven he has many years left and I think those will be good years for Paul Williams.