TOO GOOD FOR HIS OWN GOOD

By Chuck Johnson, If there’s such a thing as being too good for his own good, two-time former WBO welterweight champion Paul “The Punisher” Williams might best fit the definition.

At 27, the 6-1 southpaw from Aiken, S.C. is in his eighth year as a professional boxer and is seemingly on the verge of greatness.

But to be the best, Williams knows you’ve got to beat the best. And that’s been the rub. None of the other top welterweights are eager to fight him.

No longer content to wait for the likes of Miguel Cotto, Sugar Shane Mosley, Kermit Cintron and Antonio Margarito to step to the challenge, Williams (35-1, 26 KOs) makes his junior middleweight debut Saturday in Ontario, Calif. against three-time junior middleweight champ Verno Phillips (42-10-1, 21 KOs) from Denver, in a scheduled 12-round bout.

HBO Boxing After Dark will televise the doubleheader (10 p.m. live ET/tape-delayed PT) from brand-new Citizens Business Bank Arena. In the opening bout, unbeaten Chris Arreola (25-0, 21 KOs) from nearby Riverside, Calif. squares off against Houstonâ€^TMs Travis Walker (28-1, 22 KOs) in a scheduled 10-rounder between top heavyweight prospects.

For the second fight in a row, Williams will be competing outside the 147-pound division. He’ll face Phillips at 154 pounds for the interim WBO junior middleweight title after m oving all the way up to the 160-pound middleweight limit in June and scoring a first-round knockout of Andy Kolle. Right now, Williams’ main objective is to do what he can to stay busy.

“We’re not doing it by choice,” George Peterson, Williams’ veteran manager-trainer, says of moving up from welterweight. “Paul had to vacate his welterweight belt because no one would fight him at that weight class.

“There’s no need to hold that belt any longer because you only have a few people — Cotto, Margarito and maybe Sugar Shane — and we tried over and over to make a match with them. It’s just not happening and we don’t see it happening, so we were forced to move up just to keep busy.”

Phillips hopes to celebrate his 39th birthday Saturday with an upset victory. He won a split decision in March against Cory Spinks to capture the IBF junior middleweight title but gave up the belt in order to set up the match against Williams.

Having been shunned by so many, Williams’ team is thankful just to be fighting somebody of stature.

“Verno Phillips stepped up and we’re glad for that because it put us in a position where we could continue fighting,” Peterson says. “We both had to vacate our titles, so Saturday night we’ll be fighting for the interim 154-pound title. But 147 is where we’d still be if those guys weren’t scared.

“Paul is a very courageous and deva stating fighter and he’s an extremely hard puncher who comes to fight. They don’t want that. Boxing has changed considerably from the way it used to be. These guys want somebody they know they can smack around. Anybody who’s going to challenge them and give them a good fight, they’re not looking for that any more. That’s from yesteryear. Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns, those guys were throwback fighters and would fight anybody. But these guys figure they’ve got to have the advantage. A guy with Paul’s ability and his size, they don’t shy away from it. They run away from it.”

Any doubts about Williams’ bright potential were answered in July, 2007 when he won a unanimous decision with a masterful display of boxing and punching power to dethrone Margarito, who many had considered boxing’s most feared opponent.

Margarito had also been avoided by the elite fighters in his division, but Peterson is quick to remind that the Mexican slugger wasn’t too eager to fight Williams.

“We had called him out but it took a lawsuit in order to get Margarito to fight Paul. He did everything he could to wiggle out of it, but he was forced to fight us.”

Williams avenged the only setback of his career in July when he knocked out Carlos Quintana in the first round to regain the WBO welterweight title. Five months earlier, Quintana won a unanimous decision to take the title from Williams.

The victory against Margarit o still rates as Williams’ biggest achievement, largely because it’s the biggest-name fighter he has beaten this far.

“I would say so because they were saying Margarito was the most feared fighter in the world,” Peterson says. “Sugar Shane had turned down $8 million to fight him. (Floyd) Mayweather had turned down $8 million to fight him. But Paul said I’ll fight him and I’ll fight him for much less. Since he won that fight, though, everybody has been on their ducking spree.”

Margarito has since dealt Cotto his only defeat to capture of share of the weltereweight title. Williams, who’s promoted by Goossen Tutor, would love to give Margarito a chance at revenge but his manager-trainer doubts it will happen.

“We offered him $4 million but he went out and fought Cotto for $1.5 million,” Peterson says. “We’re continuing to offer him $4 million but he just signed to fight Sugar Shane for $2 million. So he doesn’t seem interested in fighting Paul again.”

Williams also had an offer on the board to fight middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik, who recently lost in a 170-pound catch-weight fight to Bernard Hopkins.. “Our offer was out there for about two weeks before Pavlik turned it down to fight Hopkins,” Peterson says “So he jumped from the frying pan into the fire on that one.”

At this point, it doesn’t matter to Williams whom he fights. All he wants is the chance to show how good he is and how good he can be.

“When you step in the gym from day one, your ultimate goal is to become world champion and to be considered one of the best,” Peterson says. “But how can you prove you’re one of the best when the best won’t fight you?

“We’ve shown that we’re willing to take on anybody. This fight Saturday night will be the third weight class we’ve fought at this year, just to stay busy. And it’s not right. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Not that Williams is looking past Phillips. “The gain from a fight like this is to just keep winning,” Peterson says. “Verno Phillips is a journeyman but he’s no slouch. He’s got a whole lot of people ducking him also. It’s going to be a tough challenge for Paul Williams because Phillips is real, real awkward. But we just believe that anybody we put Paul in there with, he’s going to be able to do what he has to do to keep winning.” 

Photos by Jan Sanders