Round by Round: Weekly Boxing Notes

The Punisher Set to Be Punished
Unquestionably the biggest boxing news of the week is breaking today, with word straight from the horse’s mouth (or, uh, Bob Arum’s mouth) that a deal is in place to have Kelly Pavlik fight welterweight title-holder Paul “The Punisher” Williams on September 27th.
Williams, who is listed at 6’1” and looks to be even taller than that, has been one of the freakiest physical specimens at welterweight since the young Thomas Hearns was killing himself to make 147. So the idea of Williams getting up to 160 is not strange at all – he’ll be probably be more comfortable there. (Check out Stringbean Williams’ one-round destruction of Carlos Quintana below in their February rematch.)

It’s the idea of Williams actually fighting at 160 that gives me pause, especially fighting a genuine punisher like Pavlik. Though Williams has often been compared to Hearns because of the physical similarity, but he’s never been a big punching welterweight like the Hit Man, not against top competition. So now he’s going to take that lack of power up two weight classes and fight KO Kelly Pavlik? Kelly is used to facing middleweight giants in there, man-wreckers, light heavies masquerading as 160’s like Jermain Taylor and Edison Miranda. I just don’t see how Williams thinks he’s going to make this kind of jump up in weight and class and encounter anything but disastrous results. I also don’t understand why he wants to do it, because there are tons of high octane fights waiting for him at welterweight – Cotto, a Margarito rematch, Andre Berto, maybe even Floyd down the road. I can only imagine that he just can’t make the weight anymore. It’s the only explanation. If he really can’t handle 147, given his size, he’s not going to bother with 154 because there are no good fights there anyway. So it’s natural that he would make the jump to 160. Making the jump to 160, however, to fight the roughest toughest middleweight since Marvin Hagler is another story altogether. I hate to say it Paul, but my early prognosis is that you get severely punished for your haste, within seven rounds at the most.

Undercard Under Done
The undercard for the Cotto/Margarito fight at the MGM Grand in Vegas was finalized today and man it’s a stinker. A fight for the WBA interim flyweight title between Giovanni Segura and Cesar Canchila appears to be the featured undercard fight. A junior welterweight bout comes before that between Mike Alvarado and Cesar Bazan with no titles at stake. I have to say, it’s been a while since I’ve seen such a weak undercard for such a gigantic fight. Usually they trot out someone with some national appeal. This one is just getting thrown to the dogs. Then again, with a headliner like Cotto/Margo, I guess Bob Arum feels like he could put some amateur Golden Gloves type boutsup there if he wanted to and people would still buy the fight. And, well, let’s face it - he’s probably right about that.

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