Re: Is Antonio Margarito avoiding his mandatory against Paul Williams?
Williams got his jab working in the early going, and threw in some stinging lefts for good measure. This was the volume puncher that we did not see against Cauthen. He did have his problems in the first couple of rounds, however. He has a tendency to drop his gloves and leave himself open for counters when he is through throwing, and Sanchez took advantage of that. Nothing that Sanchez connected with seem to do much damage, though, and Williams rarely missed a beat.
Williams really started to make his mark in the third stanza. With about twenty seconds to go he threw three quick jabs in a row, which seemed to confuse Sanchez, then followed that up with a sharp left that drove his opponent into the corner. At the start of the fourth he repeated the feat, pinning Sanchez against the corner post once more. Sanchez, getting desperate by this point, launched an attack of his own. After the two men exchanged in the centre of the ring for few seconds, Williams caught Sanchez with a left to the jaw. Sanchez, knocked off-balance, touched the canvas with a glove, resulting in a technical knockdown.
Rather than pounce on his opponent once the fight resumed, Williams continued to take his time, wearing Sanchez down slowly but surely. The end came with about a minute gone in the fifth, when Williams hit Sanchez with a jab, then a left to the body. Sanchez was still kneeling on the canvas when the referee finished the count, and the fight was over.
"We prepare for each fighter, each level of competition," Peterson says. "We don't fight the same way every time. We train for each particular individual. He's had some other fights that I thought were outstanding. When he fought Alfonso Sanchez, that was a good fight. I kind of felt that fight was one of his better fights. Every time he comes out, he improves. So every time he comes out you're going to see a different Paul Williams."
At this point, Williams began to rapidly grow and improve as a fighter. In April of 2006 he dispatched Sergio Rios in two rounds on a fight that was featured on ESPN. Williams simply overwhelmed Rios from the opening bell, and didn't let up until two solid uppercuts sent his opponent down to the canvas for good. The performance was enough to convince observers that Williams really was a fighter to keep an eye on.
An even bigger test came in May, when Williams took on the undefeated Argentine slugger Walter Matthysse. This was the first time that Williams took on a prospect that was nearly as high-regarded as himself, and one, moreover, that could turn a fight around with a few solid shots. The bout was featured on HBO After Dark (right before the Jhonny Gonzalez - Fernando Montiel snoozer, for the record), making this Williams' most high-profile television appearance to date.
Williams did not disappoint, putting on what many felt was the best performance on his career. Matthysse, though seemingly lacking the ability to jab, was a game opponent, and rattled Williams on occasion. You could make a good case that he won rounds two and four, as his power shots seemed to throw Williams off his game. Williams, however, showed that he had a solid chin, and he really never did stop working, throwing over a hundred punches in nearly every round.
It was Williams consistent and persistent body work that made the difference. By the sixth round Matthysse was simply exhausted. His mouth was wide open, and his work rate had diminished considerably. Williams had executed his plan as well as could be expected, as his non-stop offence took its toll on his opponent. He punished Mattysse for another few rounds until the fight was stopped in the tenth.
His statement made, Williams had vaulted into the ranks of the top welterweight contenders. While this is obviously the way any fighter would like their career to progress, there is one problem that has become even more pressing for Williams and his team: finding opponents that want to face him. Sharmba Mitchell was selected for the bout on Saturday only after they were turned down by several other prominent fighters. "He was the only one available," Peterson says. "We tried everybody. They wouldn't even talk; all they would do is turn us down. So he was the only one out there."
That being said, while Peterson is confidently predicting that Williams will end the fight early, there are not taking Mitchell entirely lightly. "He's a really sharp fighter," Peterson says. "He's got [over] 60 fights. He's a former two-time world champion. He knows his way around. His approach to boxing is that he is quite crafty, he uses a lot of speed. He's left-handed, and he has a lot of knowledge about his whereabouts in the ring. So he's someone that we're definitely going to have to contend with. You can't sleep. He's almost like a Bernard Hopkins: plenty of experience and knowledge, and he's also a gym rat. So we can't doze here. We have to bring our 'A' game to the arena that night."
Still, Peterson is obviously frustrated that nobody seems to want to give Williams the chances he feels he deserves. "We asked for Baldomir a year and a half ago," he says. "Cintron, we asked for him. David Estrada, we asked for him. Everybody in the top ten, we asked for. Every one."
It is Margarito's apparent reluctance to fight Williams that particularly galls Peterson, as the win over Matthysse put his fighter in the mandatory position for Margarito's WBO title. "We've earned the right to fight Margarito, and they won't even mention our names anymore," Peterson says. "We fought for the number one mandatory when we fought Walter Matthysse. And we won. But we have we heard anything else about that? No. Whenever we hear Margarito make a statement, he's calling out somebody else's name. The Margarito people keep saying that they can't find anybody to fight. And we have the mandatory. What can I say?"
The fact that Williams has become such an untouchable is a testament to the great strides he had made as a pro fighter. For Peterson, who has guided Williams for his entire professional career, this comes as no surprise. Though he is perhaps a tad hyperbolic when discussing his fighter, there is no doubting that his enthusiasm is justified.
"There's nobody else out there at 147 pounds that can stand in the ring with this guy," Peterson says. "Nobody out there at 147. Let me back up a bit. My favourite fighter is De La Hoya. And I would give De La Hoya a chance. But nobody else out there."
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Never beg a 40 dollar hooker...specially after she's just turned down your mom's credit card!!
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Originally Posted by El Phenomena
....Margarito is in line for a MAJOR fight he has earned it...Why fight this guy? Tony has paid his dues
Come one man,thought you could do better than that!
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