Boxing Conference Call: Paul Williams vs. Sergio Martinez II

Daniel Goossen: Well, guys, I know that we’ve got a two-part teleconference today so I’m not going to do a lot of talking and I don’t want to hear any applause because I said that, but it’s a fight – Martinez and Williams II.

It’s a fight that we’re all getting excited about. And it’s a great fight for our sport. I believe it’s the biggest fight this year, and that includes the great one that we’ll probably see with Pacquiao and Margarito. Caesars Atlantic City, they have been great good partner, DiBella Entertainment bringing Martinez to the table and Corona and HBO.

My good friend at HBO (Mark Taffet) wanted to name this fight “True Blood” based upon what we expect to see on November 20th but I guess we couldn’t get those naming rights so we’re calling it “Blood and Guts”, Martinez versus Williams II.

I want to introduce George Peterson, Paul’s trainer, so he can say a few words and then we’ll bring Paul up to say an opening comment and then we’ll open it up to the media. Thank you again for joining us.

George, how is everything looking right now in training camp?

George Peterson: Well, of course, we just finished our training for today and we’re quite pleased at where we are. We’re on schedule, of course and will be ready that night of the 20th of November.

Daniel Goossen: Great, great. Paul?

Paul Williams: I’m feeling real good, man. You know, everything is going real good. I got good sparring partners with the hand stuff and I just can’t wait to get to the 20th and put all this training to work and you know, show everybody.

Daniel Goossen: The training is going great out there, Paul?

Paul Williams: It’s going lovely, man. I mean hard work, blood, sweat and tears.

Daxx Khan of Saddo Boxing: How are you doing today? My question is for Paul. Paul, in your first fight with Martinez, you know, we all know as was spoken already only had about three weeks to prepare for that.

But, it was his movement that really seems to bother you and that was similar to your first fight with Carlos Quintana where his movements seem to bother you. In the rematch, do you think that you’re going to be able to make necessary adjustments to look as good or end the fight as quickly as you did in the Quintana rematch?

Paul Williams: I’m looking good but I want to end the fight that quickly.

George Peterson: And just want to have fun.

Paul Williams: I just want to have fun and I want to put a beating him on this time, you know, because I want to land all my shots I couldn’t land the first time. So I’ll make him pay for that but I definitely will look good. We got guys in there that move fast and do all kinds of stuff in the ring so I’m adjusted to all of that, you know, so it is a point of getting in there you know what I’m saying? Me doing I do best, you know, saying, walking the talk.

Daxx Khan: And what about Martinez that makes you think that this fight is just going to be easier? Has Martinez since then shown you anything or is it maybe the fact that over the last weigh in, he’s still at 176 pounds? Do you think that Martinez is just not taking it seriously or he’s not going to be prepared enough as you are?

Paul Williams: Not definitely. You know, he weigh 167 or whatever. That don’t mean nothing because he’s got a weight you know what I’m saying? The weight on the 19th and I think he’s going to make the weight easily, you know.

But I’ll say, you know what I’m saying? In the first fight, if you look at the first fight, you can see me not doing what I normally do. I’m just walking and twist. I wasn’t trying by the way. I just fight in him. That was my game plan, is to fight him. I want to try and do nothing. I just fight hi, but this time, I’ve got some better punishment in store for him, you know what I’m saying? He is going to have to queue up to fight me again and I bet he isn’t ready to fight me this time.

Daxx Khan: All right. And one last question was when in the first fight you guys traded knockdown in the first round. When you’ve got knockdown, did Sergio had any power that bothered you or was that more or less something..you’ve got caught, you weren’t expecting it and..

Paul Williams: (Just got caught).

Daxx Khan: All right. Thanks a lot and wish you luck.

Paul Williams: Thank you.

Michael Woods of Sweet Science: Greetings, Mr. Goossen, Paul and George.

Michael Woods: My question first is for Paul and then George could answer too. It seems that the first fight was so close. Is there more of a urgency for you to actually knock him out this time to remove all the doubt, remove the judges from the equation?

George Peterson: Well, I think the judges made the right decision. It was just those other people that were around that wanted to go to the other way, but the judges, they made the right decision.

Michael Woods: Paul, is there more of an urgency to knock him out this time to remove the judges from the equation?

Paul Williams: I’m going to do what I do best and we’ll put a real beating on this time, if the knockout comes, it comes. I’m going to put that beating on him this time, you know, it’d be much brutal this time.

Michael Woods: So you’re really looking to put a beating on him. Is there any personal dislike there or is this just what you do?

Paul Williams: Oh, nothing personal, always business.

Michael Woods: All right, all right, always business.

And the Jesus, of course, this is going to be a tough one. It’s almost a (pick em’) but with talking to Bob Arum yesterday and he said a possibility of a Pacquiao fight after this. Is that something you’d look forward to?

Paul Williams: I look forward after the 20th, but that’s more motivation in knowing that so that would motivate me even more you know what I’m saying, I’ll go out there and put on a good show, and to be real cautious and do my thing.

Michael Woods: Did you say, “Be real cautious”?

Paul Williams: Yes.

Michael Woods: You’re going to be cautious, you said?

Paul Williams: Be real cautious.

Michael Woods: Why are you going to be cautious on the 20th?

Paul Williams: I don’t want him to be hurt bad.

Michael Woods: You don’t want to hurt him that bad?

Paul Williams: Yes.

Michael Woods: OK. So you’re going to put a beating on him but you don’t want to hurt him that bad?

Paul Williams: Oh, yes, you know, nothing personal, just business.

Michael Woods: OK. Nothing personal, just business. All right. Thanks, guys. Have a great fight. Good luck, everyone.

Dan Rafael of ESPN: Hello, George, Paul and Dan. How’s everybody today?

Dan Rafael: Paul, in the first, you know, you were supposed to fight Pavlik and you ended up with Martinez on so much short notice so, you know, you had a switch from a guy that’s going to be in front of you and the right-handed to a guy that’s moves a little bit and the left-hander.

I know there was an issue with that, the weight, the whole thing. So it was a little bit of that short notice, the whole change and you were doing to prepare, and George, I know you were instrumental in making sure that he was prepared to make that big change.

Now that you had plenty of time to know who your opponent is in this fight or know this guy and also having gone 12 hard rounds with the guy, what do you think will be the difference between the way that went the first time where I think it kind of surprise a lot of people that it was such an expose of fight to how you will fight this rematch.

George Peterson: Well, you know, it’s a basic fighting. You know, people tend to think that he is real tricky and he is real smooth. Of course, you know, we’ve got to give him credit for that.

But, you know, that ring is just about 20 feet long. That’s just so far he can run and to the point where – that we’re going to make him run, no doubt about that. But we don’t run along with him this time.

Of course, we didn’t know his capabilities as much before but we know what he is subject to do. He knows he’s an old man, of course, and he can run for a period of time and then he had to stop.

He’s going to have to fight, there’s going to coma a time in that ring where he’s going to have to fight and I know who will get the best of that. So we’re not worried about that. We all feel confident about this. We have time to prepare and we are prepared. I mean if the fight takes place tomorrow night, we all wait, and we’re ready to go.

Dan Rafael: George, excuse me, he did not run in the first fight though. I mean you stood there and he traded with Paul the same way Paul stood and traded with him?

George Peterson: Say that again?

Dan Rafael: He did not run in the first fight nor did Paul but two men stood there and fought each other pretty much so that fight was so good.

George Peterson: You watched the different fight than I watched, Dan. We’re talking about Martinez and Paul Williams fight.

Dan Rafael: I know what you’re talking about. Well, a lot of punches, guys – both guys run were on the deck…

George Peterson: Oh, there were some times that he stood in the gap but most of the times, he ran.

Dan Rafael: OK. Paul, can you address the idea that there’s really – you know, you will have to make any radical changes in your camp. You’re familiar with your opponent, you went to 12 rounds in the first time.

Paul Williams: Oh, yes. This one will be more brutal this time. It will be more action and there will be more punches thrown. The same as on the first fight but ten times more so, you know, it will be – it’s going to be a good fight but I know I’m coming out with the win, either with a knockout or even with a decision.

Dan Rafael: Well, did he take you at all by surprise in the first fight, not that – I mean you knew he was a good fighter going into the fight, I know that, and, you know, both you and George as well as Goossen and everybody had nothing but respect for him going into the fight but there’s a difference between what we think you’re going to get when you go into the fight and what you actually get in the tough 12-round fight.

How surprised were you that it turned out to be that difficult of a fight compared to maybe what you had in your mind going into it?

Paul Williams: To me, it wasn’t that difficult, you know what I’m saying? Him being, you know what I’m saying? Being slick and moving and running a lot, running around, you know what I’m saying? Jumping in and jumping out. You know, I have to get adjusted to that and I started getting adjusted to that you know what I’m saying? And OK, I can deal with it now.

Dan Rafael: Now, you can deal with it, you said?

Paul Williams: Yes. And I had like a couple of rounds that I had to go adjusting because of him moving around and all that, jumping in, jumping out, throwing punches and stuff and I thought that will give him the match.

Dan Rafael: OK. And just one other thing, I saw the 30-day weigh ins. There was particular – the weights were set out to us. You were 162 to the press release and Sergio was 176 pounds – clearly, a big difference in weight.

Are you there with your normal work or have you tried extra hard or is it just, melt it off those pounds, because, you know, he’s still quite heavy relative to when you’re fighting and compared to where you were at?

Paul Williams: We’re just doing everything that we always do. You know, nothing is different and no crazy training and nothing like that, we just went to a natural workout and, you know, I have no problem with the weight always, you know. It’s just putting in the time and work.

George Peterson: We had to watch our weight. We’ve got to put on some weight though because what happened, he will be weigh – we know we’ve got three more weeks of training.

Dan Rafael: Yes.

George Peterson: And if we didn’t put on some weight, he will be under the weight limit because he’s constantly working off the weight so, you know, we’re not having trouble with the weight. Again, we had to put weight on.

Dan Rafael: All right. Thank you guys very much. I appreciate it. Good luck to you guys.

Daniel Goossen: Dan, as you know…

Dan Rafael: Yes?

Daniel Goossen: …as we’ve been saying all along, we were looking for our next fight at 147 so that’s one of the reasons why we’re sitting here doing what we’re doing because we couldn’t get Pacquiao in the ring.

Dan Rafael: OK. Is that also by the way – is that why the weight for this fight is 158 as opposed to the…

George Peterson: That’s exactly what I said to you before, is that, you know, we had Paul in, you know, looking towards 147-pound fight and obviously, that came into play on our discussion.

Dan Rafael: All right. Thanks a lot.