As previously reported on BoxingScene.com, Ross Greenburg, president of HBO Sports, is pushing to stage an October rematch between Paul Williams and WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez. They both put in a fight-of-the-year effort last December. Williams walked away with the win by way of a close majority decision.
Sampson Lewkowicz, the agent for Martinez, told BoxingScene a few days ago that his fighter was ready to sign a contract to fight Williams on the HBO target date of October 2. But, Lewkowicz also made it known that Williams' promoter, Dan Goossen, was preoccupied with chasing a "fantasy fight" with WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao.
Goossen reached out to BoxingScene to respond, and he doesn't deny it - he is 100% focused on making a fight between Pacquiao and Williams - and he says it's no fantasy.
A rematch with Martinez will have to wait. Goossen, like everyone else in the sport, is waiting to see if Floyd Mayweather Jr. will accept a proposal to fight Manny Pacquiao on November 13. Mayweather has to accept the deal by a mid-July deadline. If Mayweather passes, the two frontrunners to face Pacquiao are his promotional stablemates, Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito. Goossen believes his chances to make a Pacquiao-Williams fight are greater than ever, if Mayweather passes.
Mayweather's removal is not the only factor in Goossen's logic. Margarito is still banned from being able to box in the United States. On Friday the Nevada State Athletic Commission refused to grant Margarito's application to obtain a license to box in the state, which also prevents him from being able to fight in Las Vegas.
Goossen doesn't view a Pacquiao-Cotto rematch as an attractive substitute, because Cotto is only one-fight removed from taking a serious beating at the hands of Pacquiao. The Puerto Rican champion was stopped by Pacquiao last November in the twelfth round. According to Goossen, the only alternative to a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight - is a Pacquiao-Williams fight.
"Right now my concentration is Pacquiao and Williams. It's been no secret that we planned to go back down to 147, Paul's natural weight. We were looking to fight one of the champions, one of the big names...no secret there. Paul Williams wants to show that he's best in that division, or that he's just one of the tough guys in that division. We've got the best 147-pounder in the world in Paul Williams. The door is open. Knowing how these champions, these great ones think, that to be great - there is risk involved...a lot of it," Goossen told BoxingScene.com.
"Paul Williams has displayed it. How did he display it? He fought everyone at 147-pounds who would fight him. Then he goes up and gives away poundage, to fighters who have been regulars at 154-pounds and 160-pounds in their careers. Giving away that edge to make the fights that the fans want to see. This is a perfect example of Manny Pacquiao making that same type of decision of giving up something, and in this case - size. Not weight. Just a taller fighter. Paul gave up weight to these super welterweights and middleweights, but these great ones do that."
"If Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao isn't made next, then the best fight for our sport, the biggest fight for our sport, is Pacquiao against Williams. If you can't get Floyd, there is no one else that's better than Paul Williams. I don't want to see Cotto, one-fight removed from a lopsided fight, where he eventually got stopped. I don't want to see that again. He is one-fight removed from it. As far as I'm concerned, if they don't get Mayweather, then there is only one man there, and that's Paul Williams. And your readers will attest to that."
Williams is 6'3, which is a few inches taller than Yuri Foreman, who Pacquiao rejected as a March opponent because he saw Foreman as being "too tall." Goossen doesn't anticipate that same problem because the Foreman fight was going to take place at 154-pounds.
"This is a little bit different. He's facing a natural 147-pounder claiming he's the best. And either Manny Pacquiao is the best at 147, or not. So he's not going out of the weight division where he's considered the pound for pound best. If Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather doesn't get made, then Paul Williams should be that fighter to fight Pacquiao," Goossen said.
"And the excuse of 'he's too tall' is like Paul saying 'he's too heavy.' I know [Top Rank CEO] Bob [Arum] would like to keep it in-house, but the fans have to be considered here. This is what's going to draw our sport to the heights that we had before," Goossen said.
A fight with Pacquiao is very unlikely to happen because Williams is not viewed by Top Rank as a very "lucrative" possibility, but Goossen believes otherwise. He is willing to make certain guarantees to Bob Arum, Top Rank's CEO, to prove a Pacquiao-Williams fight will generate a higher pay-per-view buyrate figure than a fight with Joshua Clottey [700K buys in March] or a possible rematch with Cotto. However, Goossen is not confident about his ability to convince Arum - but that won't discourage him from pursuing the fight.
"Am I confident that Bob Arum will take up that challenge? No. On the other hand, Manny Pacquiao is a respected fighter and he may have something to say about that. Why would he want to fight Miguel Cotto, who he manhandled, for his next big fight? I think he would rather go and fight someone where people will say he's nuts to fight. I think everyone wants to see it, except for Bob," Goossen said.
"Like I said, I'm not confident but I'm certainly not going to stop trying to get it. Bob can put it under any excuse he wants to. I guarantee the pay-per-view dollars that Clottey generated and what Cotto could generate [for the rematch] would be far less than what Paul Williams and Pacquiao would generate. And I would be willing to work with [Arum], to stand by what I just said."
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