By Michael Collins: Former two time WBO welterweight champion Paul Williams (40-2, 27 KO’s) has been consistently ignored by big named stars like Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Miguel Cotto and Shane Mosley throughout his 12 year pro career.
Williams, 30, has been passed over by those guys and it’s not hard to understand why. At 6’1”, Williams would be a tough fight for any of them; although I don’t for a second think he could beat Mayweather, Cotto, Pacquiao or a prime Mosley. Williams’ lack of fast hands, his tendency to get hit a lot, and lack of power would be his undoing against them.
Williams was recently stopped in the 2nd round by Sergio Martinez in their rematch in November 2010. In that fight, Williams was knocked out cold. It was a case of Williams’ lack of defense costing him big time by walking into a straight left hand from the southpaw Martinez. Williams took eight months off after that knockout loss and came back against another southpaw Erislandy Lara last July, and took a real pounding from Lara in earing a controversial 12 round majority decision.
I can’t stress enough how incredibly bad that decision was. At best, I saw Williams winning all of two rounds in that fight and even then I feel I was too generous. He took a real pounding in that fight and he’s lucky that Lara isn’t a huge puncher because Williams would have been counting stars.
The Martinez and Lara fights, as well as Williams’ loss to Carlos Quintana, showed that he’s not on the same level as guys like Mayweather and Pacquiao. However, in an interview at RingTV today, Williams said “I’m more on the same level as Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.”
How Williams can still see himself on the same level as Pacquiao and Mayweather is kind of mind bogging. It’s good to have self-confidence but this kind of ridiculous. Williams isn’t on the same level and probably never was to begin with. He’s a good fighter and does well due to his height, reach and high work rate, but he’s not like Mayweather, Cotto or Pacquiao in my view.