Paul Williams to fight Andy Kolle at Middleweight on Sept. 25th on Versus

[LeonardW12Hagler]

I would have rather seen Paul move to 154. 154 is a mess. You got the Latin Fake and a 39 yr old Forrest battling it out for the WBC title. Then you have Cory "Send you to sleep" Spinks and Vernon Phillips who is 38 and has 10 losses on his resume. Then a past it ODLH who has 1 fight in him left which won't even be at 154. The jr-middle divison needs sorting out.

Same here I think 154 would be a relatively easy divison to clean up in , strange to jump 2 divisions when the plan was to defend the welterweight title I have never heard of the opponent either !

[Diane]

Dan Rafael of ESPN.com reported today that after this fight, that Williams may not go back down to welterweight, since no one wants to fight him there.

His reported fight for the end of November may be against Verno Phillips for his Jr Middleweight title.

[Bomp]

Like I said earlier, it's a keep busy fight, and since they're considering making welter again soon it makes sense to take on someone of limited threat at middle since they might be planning on Paul coming in the ring at low 150's.

If he were moving up permanently it'd make sense to test the waters with a Vera, but even as limited as Vera is Williams would have to bulk up 'properly' to match the guy in strength, which would severely damage his hopes of coming back down fast and safe (a la Roy Jones).

[LEGION]

Surely theres another more recognizable name he can fight at Middle....

See the thing is Mick is that this fight isn't really an important one the way you think its just a fight just to see if Paul Williams can handle the weight while keeping all of his attributes Paul Williams will for certain fight the big names at Middleweight if he looks impressive Paul Williams isn't the kind of fighter to duck opponents.

I perfectly understand what the fight is about trust me kid, I know.

Still there are more recognizable names out there he could have fought.
Brian Veras gotten exposure with his win over Lee.
Why not Vera? Def. more recognizable then Kolle and it's not like Veras this HUGE threat to Paul.

Someone help me understand this, as I am confused.

He is fighting Andy Kolle to maybe test the waters a bit; but why was he so gung-ho to get in with Pavlik? Wasn't there a serious chance that Williams was going to get a shot at Pavlik a few weeks ago; or he and his camp were making noise about it? If he thought he was ready for Kelly, who's at the top, why would he need to tread water in the shallow end in fighting Kolle? Or was that alot of nonsense about him wanting to fight Kelly? Just curious.

[leftylee]

Dan Rafael of ESPN.com reported today that after this fight, that Williams may not go back down to welterweight, since no one wants to fight him there.

His reported fight for the end of November may be against Verno Phillips for his Jr Middleweight title.

Isn't Phillips fighting John Duddy ?

[kingfrnk]

i think dan rafael is right no one wants to fight him not even margarita, paul is more dangerous than most people think he punches alot with a little power, doesnt get tired and has a pretty decent chin cause i seen him take some hard shots from quintana and is too tall to get too. and i think he should do well at mw if he doesnt fight pavlik.

[RozzySean]

Duddy was the rumor, but I don't think it ever got signed. If Phillips team has been talking with Williams, too, that might explain the hold up.

[ICB]

Duddy was the rumor, but I don't think it ever got signed. If Phillips team has been talking with Williams, too, that might explain the hold up.

Whats happening with John Duddy he seems to have fallen off the radar lately.

[Phil]

Duddy was the rumor, but I don't think it ever got signed. If Phillips team has been talking with Williams, too, that might explain the hold up.

Whats happening with John Duddy he seems to have fallen off the radar lately.

he's due to fight in Belfast soon, I think they wanted to bring Phillips over, not sure who he's gonna fight though

[Spicoli]

Chance for Williams to look devastating in a prime time slot,really not much more.Really can not blame him too much for a soft touch if the network and promotion offer it on silver platter.I think he can own Jr. Middle in short order with a possible exception to an inactive and up in the air wright.At middle,an entirely different matter!

[Kev]

I don't know why you guys are all so critical of this fight.

It's clearly a big deal to move up not one but two weight divisions and he doesn't want to risk losing or looking out of his depth.

This Kolle's record isn't too shabby. Losing to Andre ward is certainly no shame and he's won 6 straight since including a win over Vanda. He may have gone life and death with him as Mick said but then so did Julio Caesar Chavez last time out and Vanda represented his biggest fight so far.

Seeing as Kolle has beat Vanda he seems a reasonable water tester for Williams who would be jumping up 13 lbs in one go.

I see no problem with this fight and look forward with interest to see how he looks and fills out at what would seem to be his natural weight class.

[OumaFan]

Doesn't bother me at all either

[amat]

He's fighting in November I think that's confirmed. So it's no big deal. Kind of bizarre though, I mean Andre Ward beat this guy 8 fights in with no problems was actually one of his best fights under the 10 win mark. Williams is number 1 at 147 for me so I would like to see him get back down and do a round robin with Margarito and Cotto but it looks like that won't happen.

[Spicoli]

He's fighting in November I think that's confirmed. So it's no big deal. Kind of bizarre though, I mean Andre Ward beat this guy 8 fights in with no problems was actually one of his best fights under the 10 win mark. Williams is number 1 at 147 for me so I would like to see him get back down and do a round robin with Margarito and Cotto but it looks like that won't happen.

Don't know if I read this right earlier but .....Clottey/Margarito is not going to happen in Nov. and Tony out until early 09' unfortunatly.Would not mind a rematch with either.

[amat]

I would like to see Williams-Clottey, it seems both have been on the second tier of notoriety in the division for quite a while now. I think Williams takes it though, I'm not sold on Clottey he has no game from the outside, like zero. I think he had a good jab in those famed first four rounds against Margarito but it seems a distance memory. They blame the hand on that loss but people seem to forget that he fades in the second half of nearly every fight he's ever been in, broken hand or not. So I don't have any interest at all in the Margarito-Clottey rematch other for the fact that I just want to see Margarito again but yeah, I don't think that's any more competitive or any different then the first.