Paul Williams a middleweight? A junior middleweight? Welterweight? Who knows? It all depends on which day you catch "The Punisher."
In his past five fights, Williams has fought in all three divisions -- welterweight, then at middleweight, then junior middleweight and then his last two bouts again at middleweight.
He's has had success in all three divisions. He's a former two-time welterweight titleholder, a former interim junior middleweight titleholder and, in his most recent fight in December, he beat the guy, Sergio Martinez, who would go on to win the middleweight championship in his following bout.
"I've been asked the same questions so many times about fighting in different weight classes, if I feel I am getting slighted, that sort of stuff, that my answers are almost like turning on a recorder and listening to it play, but only with my mouth moving," Williams said. "But, make no mistake, I don't mind getting the attention and all the questions. I am confident and comfortable fighting in different weight classes and I will continue to do so for as long as I can and it is feasible.
"Whatever the weight is, my mindset is -- and always has been -- to fight to the end. I think that is my greatest advantage. I'm satisfied with the way things are going."
Williams is returning to junior middleweight to tangle with big puncher Kermit Cintron (32-2-1, 28 KOs), a former welterweight titleholder, in a scheduled 12-rounder Saturday night (HBO, 9:45 ET) at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. HBO will open the telecast by replaying last Saturday's Floyd Mayweather-Shane Mosley pay-per-view bout.
But which division is really home for Williams (38-1, 27 KOs), who has bounced around the three weight classes in an effort to find the biggest fights?
Even though the lanky Williams is 6-foot-2, he and his team insist he can make the 147-pound welterweight limit and they are sick of hearing and reading that he can't, even though he hasn't fought in the division since drilling Carlos Quintana in the first round in their 2008 rematch.
Trainer George Peterson is probably more sick of the comments than anyone.
"Paul is saying, "Give me a 147-pounder and let me show you that I can make 147 pounds,'" a slightly annoyed Peterson said. "And if you are still that much in doubt then watch us eat breakfast before the weigh-in."
Promoter Dan Goossen said the only reason Williams has moved up and down in weight is because none of the top welterweights will give him the time of day, even though it's the division he prefers to fight in.
"With the welterweight division, it's getting harder and harder to find takers out there mainly because of the size discrepancy," Goossen said. "But it's not Paul's fault that he's 6-foot-2 and has a longer reach than the Klitschkos. But what has never left us is that we're looking to crack that superstardom, and the way to do that is to make the super fight. It's been no secret that's Paul's best weight is 147."
Like every other welterweight on the planet, the dream matches are against Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.
"You throw any of the top welters out there and they've gone by the wayside now," Goossen said. "The [Miguel] Cottos, the [Antonio] Margaritos. I mean, Paul got rid of Margarito [in 2007] when no one wanted to. Cotto was dispatched by Margarito. So there are three welterweights that are out there today and they should all be mentioned in the same breath and that's Pacquiao, Mayweather and Williams. When everything is said and done, Paul is a 147-pounder. To be the best and to be the greatest and to be No. 1, I don't believe anyone can really say that until they get in the ring with Paul Williams. It may not be today or it may not be tomorrow but eventually Paul Williams will get his opportunity to show what we've been saying for the past two or three years. It will all come to fruition."
In his last bout, Williams eked out a majority decision against Martinez in a tremendous action fight. Williams had hoped to either face Martinez in a rematch or challenge Kelly Pavlik for the middleweight title in a fight that had already been called off three times previously. But when Pavlik and Martinez made a deal, it left Williams looking for another fight, and Cintron, whom Williams almost fought a few different times over the past few years, got the call.
"This fight has been in the works since 2006 when he was WBO champion and I was IBF champion. We were supposed to fight a unification fight back then," Cintron said. "There've been talks three or four times since, but the time wasn't right. Now, for me, the timing is perfect and I am very confident. You can call Williams a 'feared' fighter or whatever, but he's just another fighter for me. This will be an interesting fight because we've both overcome some obstacles to get here. Stylewise, it could be the fight of the year."
Cintron has fought his past three bouts at junior middleweight after a career at welterweight, so Williams is moving down to face him and enjoys confounding folks with his division hopping.
"To me, it's kind of fun," Williams said. "People can't really categorize me. It's hard because you can't get anybody to fight you. It takes discipline because once you finally pick a weight you've got to get up or down in weight. I kind of like it. [Moving divisions] isn't killing us so far. Everything's good. So if it's not broke don't fix it."
"Right now, Cintron is my main focus. The guy right in front of me is always my main focus. I don't think about any other possible fights. If I'm asked, I'll talk about it, but otherwise my sole concentration is my next fight. But my thing is I'll fight anybody if the money is right."
Donaire-Darchinyan rematch implodes
The proposed rematch between junior bantamweight champ Vic Darchinyan and interim titlist Nonito Donaire, slated for Aug. 21 at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., is off.
Donaire scored a sensational fifth-round knockout of Darchinyan in a 2007 upset and there has been talk about a rematch since. They got close, but it fell through.
According to Darchinyan promoter Gary Shaw, it came down to a disagreement over international television rights and Darchinyan's team was tired of waiting for Donaire to sign the contract for which talks began almost six weeks ago.
"It was an easy fight to make and Showtime bought it right away and I have the Home Depot Center on hold," Shaw said. "I have nothing bad to say about Top Rank but the breakdown was on the international rights. Every day I would get calls from Vic's manager and be bombarded by e-mails to either make the fight or move on. I said let's be patient. Then I got an e-mail from Team Darchinyan saying they weren't going to wait. They said it shouldn't take five weeks to make a fight between 115 pounders who say they want to fight each other."
Top Rank's Carl Moretti, however, said the foreign TV situation had been ironed out and only after Top Rank agreed, did Darchinyan's management tell Shaw to pull the plug.
Shaw said Darchinyan will still fight Aug. 21 on Showtime on a telecast that is slated to also include the Carl Froch-Arthur Abraham Super Six bout from Europe.
Shaw said Darchinyan is interested in facing unified bantamweight titlist Fernando Montiel; the winner of the May 22 bout between bantamweight titlist Yonnhy Perez and Abner Mares or moving to featherweight to face the winner of the May 22 main event, the fourth bout between Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez.
Darchinyan won't get Montiel, according to Moretti. Top Rank co-promotes him with Fernando Beltran and they have no intention of giving Darchinyan the fight because Montiel-Donaire is a fight they'd like to do.
"That's a distinct possibility for the fall," Moretti told ESPN.com.
Moretti and Shaw worked for weeks to get Donaire-Darchinyan done but, said Moretti, "At the end of the day, it just couldn't be made. Life goes on. Darchinyan has the belts at 115 and knows he may never get to avenge a terrible beating. Besides, I'm dealing with bigger issues like my daughter's senior prom this weekend. Her date is a 6-foot-2, 220-pound all-county linebacker."
Moretti said Donaire could probably would fight in July before the possible fight with Montiel.
Familiar face
In September 2008, before Amir Khan claimed a junior welterweight title, he was blown out in 54 seconds by Colombian's Breidis Prescott (21-2, 18 KOs) in a lightweight bout. It was a shocking upset, although Khan rebounded to win his next four fights, including a 140-pound title against Andreas Kotelnik.
Now, Khan will see Prescott, who is 1-2 since his big win, again next week in New York. The reason? While Khan is slated to defend against New York's Paulie Malignaggi on HBO next Saturday at the Madison Square Garden Theater, Prescott faces Jason Davis on the undercard now that he's signed a co-promotional deal with Lou DiBella, who also promotes Malignaggi. Obviously, a rematch with Khan could loom in the future.
"Breidis still needs a little more work, but he punches like a mule and he holds a win over one of the hottest guys in the division, which means there's a big rematch for him down the road," DiBella told ESPN.com. "I don't know how big it will be after Paulie beats Khan but I'm sure it's a fight that Khan, a proud, young kid wants to avenge."
Dan Rafael covers boxing for ESPN.com.
Source: espn.go.com
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