Punish the Punisher

Quintana dethrones Williams!

By Moncayo Blackbull     Photos: Eric Van Dyke/InsideBoxing.com  (More Photos)

IB - February 9, 2008 - Former world champion Paul “The Punisher” Williams came into the ring full of confidence after defeating Antonio Margarito to become a world champion. After all in beating Margarito he beat the one fighter everyone was supposedly avoiding.

Standing at somewhere between 6’1” and 6’3”, Williams naturally had a hard time being matched up in the welterweight division of boxing. After defeating Margarito, Williams certainly had no takers. Now Williams was being marketed as the most feared man in the business.

A fight between Williams and Kermit Cintron was signed but never became reality after Cintron pulled out due to an injured hand.

Enter Carlos Quintana…

Quintana stepped in where no other fighter cared to be, Quintana said this was not a money fight for him and that Williams did not know what he was getting into. Quintana backed up his words as he soundly punished the punisher.

What happened to Williams in this contest? We did not see the hundred punch count per round, we did not see the killer instinct you normally would see in Williams. Was the hunger well fed in Williams?

While Quintana’s style and determination had plenty do with making Williams look like an average fighter, the Williams we came to know was definitely absent.

I believe in conjunction to fighting an astute opponent, William fell for the out of the ring rope-a-dope. You see boxing groupies are parasites like no other. They will call you champ, they will tell everything you want to hear, they come out of the woodwork and all of a sudden you feel like an invincible king.

The problem starts when you begin to believe it all… It ends with you walking to the opposite corner congratulating your opponent.

It did not take long to see this was going to be a long night for Williams, midway in the first round Williams gets caught with a power right hook that stopped him dead in his tracks.

Williams fights the first five rounds as if he wants to look pretty and technical, no hundreds of punches just a lot of head and shoulder bobble while flinging his punches. In the meantime Quintana not worried about how he looked, continually landed power shot after power shot. When Williams tries to throw his own power shots, Quintana’s elusiveness made him miss.

It was not till the sixth round that Williams let his hands go and does a little damage of his own. The sixth episode was Williams’ first round you could say he definitely won.

More of the old Williams came in the next two rounds and it looked as if Williams was back on track but the stubbornness of Quintana would not allow him to succumb. Quintana looked as if he might be tiring back in the sixth round and Williams began to press and throw more effective punches in rounds seven and eight, still Quintana landed his own arsenal of shots, making the rounds tight to score.

In the ninth episode Williams with a cut on the side of the left eye began showing signs of fatigue.

 In the tenth and eleventh rounds, Williams went back to the “looking good” style, maybe scoring but giving Quintana all the mental reasons to pick up his game. And Quintana did just that.

In the final round with cuts along side of both eyes, Williams gave all he can and fought like a champion, just a little too late for victory.

Judges Tony Crebs and Michael Pernick score the fight 116 – 112 while Jose Cobian saw the contest 115 – 113 all in favor of the new champion Carlos Quintana

Williams makes his way to the opposite corner of the ring to congratulate the new champion…

Exit Williams

In the so called co-main event Andre Berto looked impressively stupid in beating inferior opponent Michel Trabant. Trabant maybe threw 10 punches before retiring in his corner in the… Can’t recall what round but it does not matter.

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