There's not an ounce of dog in Paul Williams and nobody can ever
accuse him of playing it safe with his opponent selection. Williams
is just a soft-spoken punching machine who will fight any opponent
in any division.
He should be selling out every seat wherever he fights. He is
precisely what every hard-core boxing fan wishes for when they go
up and down the rankings and complain about the sad state of the
sport today.
Yet, Williams is not a draw; He doesn't bring big numbers to
HBO and he doesn't put butts in seats ... and that's a real shame
and a fine mystery to explore.
After all, its not like he's without his connections. He has
Al Haymon representing him and Haymon has a direct line to HBO. The
same pit bull pushing Floyd Mayweather Jr. into eight-figure
paydays is behind Williams, yet Williams has a hard time even
filling the first dozen rows of his fights or attracting a rating
higher than a 2.0.
Looking over his recent resume, his only
less-than-scintillating performance was against Winky Wright and
the lack of intrigue in that one had nothing at all to do with
Williams' effort as he hurled punches in bunches at a
defense-minded Wright.
And if there was need for further proof of Williams'
entertainment value, Saturday's war with Sergio Martinez should've
erased all doubt as to his ability to thrill even the most casual
fan.
In a candidate for Fight of the Year, Williams and Martinez
went at it with a ferocity that bordered on frenzy at times, but
despite the buzz that surrounds a quality fight, this one will
ultimately result in a sigh of disbelief and a shrugging of the
shoulders as we read the television ratings report.
So, why can't a fighter, proven to be entertaining and a
representative of all things boxing fans claim to want, attract the
proper amount of attention?
Some will point to the big fighters' unwillingness to fight
Williams and the resulting necessity to fight trickier,
lesser-known opponents in order to make a living. That could be a
solid reason, but it's not like Williams has been fighting stiffs.
Williams has fought guys like Antonio Margarito, Carlos Quintana,
Verno Phillips, Winky Wright and Martinez on the nation's premier
boxing network. Lesser fighters have achieved greater glory with
weaker opposition.
The most pessimistic of the reasons behind Williams' lack of
star power is perhaps the most bitter pill to swallow. Maybe the
fans, despite their cries to the contrary, simply don't care about
entertaining, brave warriors who step softly into battle. Maybe
they simply like who they like, based on personality or background,
and couldn't care less about anything else.
Whatever the reason, Williams is a special kind of fighter
and he deserves to be seen by a much wider audience. Hopefully the
buzz around the Martinez bout will fix that. If not, take all fight
fans' whines about wanting a re-emergence of old-school fighters
with a huge grain of salt ... they're not telling the truth.
