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VS
This coming
Saturday night, April 11th, will either serve as a passing
of the torch fight or a case of not quite being ready for the
elite society of the boxing world.
Paul "The Punisher" Williams is a throwback fighter. He is
willing to fight each and everyone to prove he is one of the
best and is entitled to being mentioned in the same breath as
the top fighters in the game. At 6' 2" tall, and campaigning
as a welterweight makes him a freak of nature.
The other thing about Paul Williams that certainly doesn't
fit a guy with a 6' 2" frame is his style of boxing.
Williams crowds you and beats you down with an extremely high
volume of punches, not the style of your conventional tall
fighter, who does damage from the outside with a long jab.
Williams is a decent puncher, not a devastating puncher. He
still appears to be a little green in certain areas and the
thought of that alone can be very scary for any opponent
coming out of the other corner to face him. In comes Ronald
"Winky" Wright, who probably has the most non-threatening ring
name in the history of the sport of boxing. But don't let the
ring name fool you though; Winky is a concealment professional
fighter who paid his dues and toiled in obscurity for many
years, forced to make a name for himself not in the United
States but overseas. It was as though he had to conquer the
the world abroad before he would become accepted in his
homeland.
I met Winky so many years ago at a fight at the Hilton
Hotel... it may have been Michael Nunn versus Sumbu Kalambay,
which took place in March of 1989. I saw him in the lobby and
took it upon myself to walk up to him, to let him
know I knew who he was as a fighter and to say that I thought he
would do great things in this sport; all he needed was his
break to make the entire world take notice. He was very nice
and even knew who I was as well; we talked for a little while
and went back into the arena and took our seats. Since that
day, so long ago, he has proven me to be a prophet. Wright has
gone on to
win multiple Championships, and has beaten some of the biggest names
in the sport and the nickname Winky didn't sound so bad then.
The fight between Williams and Wright is so difficult to pick
if you honestly access the talents of the two, and not pick
either one because as a fan you favor one more than the other.
Paul Williams, although he has already won multiple
Championships, needs to beat Winky to raise his status in
the boxing world. Williams is exactly where Winky was until he
beat Shane Mosley. Winky brings to the table intelligence
and one of the best defenses in the game of boxing, extremely
hard to penetrate or even hit clean. Still on the other side
you have youth, hunger, tenacity, will and an eagerness
to prove himself just as Winky had to do.
Will Williams be able
to penetrate Winky's solid defense? Will his volume of punches
allow him to land because so many will be coming non-stop? Will Winky's almost two year layoff become a factor against a
young, hungry lion, or will Winky use his wisdom to not only
frustrate Williams, but to take him to school? Will he take him places
Williams has never been because he has never fought someone
who masters so
many different facets of the game that he makes it difficult
for anyone to look good against him? Still, this is boxing, that
is what makes it so intriguing. It's the theater of the
unexpected, of the upset,
but here I don't think whomever wins will be an upset in
the eyes of the boxing public.
I think if there is a knockout, it
would be a shocker from either side. Isn't it ironic that at
one time Winky -although not a huge puncher- was
considered one of the most feared fighters in the sport, and
now Paul Williams carries that same distinction, as being the
most feared fighter in the sport of boxing.
This is a very tough one to
call but here is my pick..... Drum
roll... I
pick the southpaw.
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4-10-2009 |
