http://www.maxboxing.com/Fischer/Fischer052606.asp
CARSON, California – Paul Williams and Walter Dario Matthysee are promising young fighters but both are still largely unproven in the prize ring. However the welterweights, who will clash in the HBO Boxing After Dark-televised co-feature to tomorrow’s Jhonny Gonzalez-Fernando Montiel main event at the Home Depot Center, possess the kind of boxing qualities that generally guarantee national TV consideration.
Both are undefeated prospects. The 24-year-old Williams is 29-0. The 27-year-old Matthysee is 25-0. There’s something magical about an undefeated mark in the boxing world. An unblemished ledger seems to represent unlimited potential and possibilities. Fans and network executives can’t help but take notice of undefeated fighters.
Williams and Matthysee are hard punchers. Fans love power and crave knockouts – and the networks know this. Matthysee, who has stopped 24 of his 25 victims (he has not gone the distance since a four-round bout three and half years ago in his fourth pro fight), probably possesses more power than Williams, but the southpaw from Augusta, Georgia is no slouch in that department either with 21 KOs to his credit.
Both young men are physical specimens. Mathysee doesn’t just look like a boxer; he looks like an athlete with his lean, muscular build over a well-proportioned 5-foot-10 frame. The native of Argentina would fit right in with the players on the Chivas USA soccer team, which will take on the Chicago Fire the afternoon of the fight at the Home Depot Center’s big arena next door to the tennis courts where the fighters will throw down later in the evening.
However, the fire in Matthysee’s eyes and the scar tissue around them lets the world know that he is a fighter, not a soccer player.
Williams also has the look of a fighter, but not a welterweight. In street clothes, the 6-foot-2 southpaw, who probably possesses an 80-inch wingspan, looks like a light heavyweight. How he sweats his freakishly tall and rangy frame down to the 147-pound limit is anybody’s guess.
Williams and Matthysee are unbeaten. They’re powerful. They’re physically imposing. They even have cool nicknames. (Williams is known as “The Punisher”. Matthysee goes by “El Terrible”.)
By all accounts HBO and the card’s promoter, Golden Boy Promotions, are presenting fans with a matchup of two monster welterweights, but does this guarantee that Williams and Matthysee will deliver tomorrow night? Absolutely not.
Williams has been in a few televised stinkers in the past two and a half years – including his first step-up fight, a one-sided 10 rounder vs. then unbeaten Luis Hernandez on ESPN2 in May of ’04, and an equally dominant but often awkward showing vs. Terrance Cauthen on ShoBox last April. And aside from a first-round KO of serviceable journeyman Xavier Tolliver in San Diego late last year, all of Matthysee’s fights have taken place in Argentina vs. unknown and unheralded South American fighters.
Fight fans really have no idea what they are going to get when these two step into the ring, but it’s hard not to anticipate such a match-up, if only because of what the fighters look like and appear to be on paper.
If you’re a child of the ‘70s and you used to enjoy watching monster movies on TV, wanting to see this fight is akin to begging your parents to let you stay up to watch ‘Godzilla vs. Megalon’ on the midnight creature feature even though all the big kids in your neighborhood told you that particular flick was “mega-corny” (even by Japanese rubber monster suit genre standards). But the name of the movie, along with the brief clips of the monsters crushing buildings and attacking each other (along with flying robots, aliens and UFOs) was too much for the average six or seven year old to resist.
Going by what the two welterweight monsters said at Wednesday’s final press conference held in the 5,000-seat outdoor tennis arena where the seven-bout card will take place, Williams vs. Matthysee will probably play out more like ‘Godzilla vs. Mothra’ (the 1964 flick that was perhaps the best of the many sequels to the original Godzilla) than ‘Godzilla vs. Megalon’ (which did indeed suck).
Matthysee, who was signed by Golden Boy last year, was quiet and generally polite at the press conference, but there was a surely edge to him during the proceedings. When it came time for him to speak, he kept it short as he usually does in his fights (only three of his 25 victims have gone past four rounds).
“Tune in to see this fight,” he told the media. “It will be excellent while it lasts. If it goes past one round, I’ll be very surprised, but it certainly won’t go past three or four rounds.”
Williams, who is promoted by Goossen Tutor, wasn’t offended by Matthysee’s confidence. Given the stakes and the exposure, he says he can understand the Argentine’s anticipation; plus, he feels the exact same way.
“This fight is on HBO, it’s a chance for us to show the world how good we really are against a worthy opponent, and it’s a title fight [NABO],” Williams told MaxBoxing. “It’s the kind of fight that will move the winner up to the next level, so I’m excited, and he’s excited, but I’m going to do what I normally do and that’s get them up outta there.”
Williams is usually painfully shy and quiet, but following the press conference he was unusually animated when talking about tomorrow’s bout with MaxBoxing. Part of the reason is that Matthysee has the kind of aggressive style that brings out “the Punisher” in his game. Cauthen, a ’96 Olympic bronze medalist and former amateur standout, was an experienced stylist who knew how to smother Williams’ punches and tie him up on the inside. Hernandez was game, but didn’t possess the kind of physical strength or punching power to make the Southerner take notice.
Williams knows that Matthysee will not attempt to tie him up; the South American will just be winging heat from the opening bell, and he says he can’t wait to fight fire with fire.
“When they come in aggressive, my skill and my game plan jumps an entire level,” Williams said. “Everything is more sharp when they come rushin’ in. When they hold back and take their time and stuff it takes me some time to get into my rhythm, but when they try to force it, it’s good night for them early.
“I like it when they try and force me. I’m quicker and more alert than normal when they do that.”
Williams first turned heads in Southern California when he was brought in to spar with WBO welterweight title holder Antonio Margarito when the rugged Mexican was preparing to face Daniel Santos in the fall of ’04. Margarito’s never been one to hold back in the gym so Williams quickly learned to either punish or be punished when sparring with the Tijuana native.
Rumor has it that in the two weeks they sparred at the now-closed L.A. Boxing Club both big welterweights were dropped in separate sessions.
“You saw me in there with Margarito,” Williams said. “We put on wars – not no big wars, but the point is, with me not being on his level you would think that he would have dogged me out of the ring, but I was able to hold my own and that boosted my confidence.”
Williams says that he will take that confidence into the ring tomorrow night, and hopefully beyond, where he envisions big-name matcups with the likes of Arturo Gatti and Ricky Hatton and “pound-for-pound-level” showdowns with Floyd Mayweather and his old sparring buddy Margarito.
However, he’s quick to add: “I can’t look past Walter Matthysee.
“He’s got 24 KOs in 25 fights, so he’s a puncher, but that don’t mean nothin’. I got 21, so there’s going to be a lot of fireworks Saturday night and I got an entire arsenal waiting for him.”
BOXING UNDER THE STARS
Tomorrow’s card is strong from top to bottom. Aside from Gonzalez-Montiel and Matthysee-Williams, there is a non-televised WBO 122-pound title bout between WBO boss Daniel Ponce-DeLeon (27-1, with 25 KOs) and unbeaten challenger Alejandro Barrera (18-0, with 12 KOs).
Junior bantamweight prospect Z Gorres, a very popular fighter from the Philippines who trains in Hollywood with Freddie Roach, former WBO light heavyweight champ Julio Gonzalez, who hails form nearby Huntington Beach, and 115-pound contender Gerson Guerrero, who holds a win over current title holder Hugo Cazares, are on the undercard.
