I had a chance to speak with ‘The Punisher’ Paul Williams. Williams was widely regarded as one of the toughest and most avoided fighters in the welterweight division at the height of his career. Following a motorcycle accident, Paul was forced him to retire from the sport but now he has shifted his focus to his time his foundation, The Paul Williams Foundation.
In this interview I got Paul Williams’ views on boxing star Floyd Mayweather Jr. and the possibility of him facing off with eight division world champion, Manny Pacquiao. Paul also spoke about the fight he was supposed to have with Saul Alvarez before his exit from boxing. Lastly, ‘The Punisher’ speaks about his foundation and talks about dealing with hardships in life. Here is what Paul Williams had to say.
Robert Brown: Floyd Mayweather is still boxing’s biggest star and people still want to see him truly tested. Who do you think will actually be for Floyd?
Paul Williams: I don’t know, but I wish it was me. I know that ain’t gonna happen so whoever he’s gonna fight next, I just want to see them test the king. Don’t go in there and be a punching bag and get busted up, I want to see you go in there and man up with him. If this is going to be his last fight or whatever, and you’re going to try and take him off his throne, you got to go in there no holds barred; you got to go all out.
You got to be the punisher in there, you got to go in there and take it from the champion. You can’t throw a couple of punches and get a couple punches in there and people think you win the fight. I would want to get it hands down, and know you got it, know you whopped Floyd because when you get it from him like that, you will be the next king and you know nobody will take it from you like that. You know if they’re going to take it from you, they got to work for it. That’s what a true champion comes from when they take it from another true champion.
Robert Brown: One fight that could produce the next opponent for Mayweather is the upcoming Khan-Alexander fight. What are your thoughts on that bout?
Paul Williams: That’s gonna be a pretty good fight. I think Amir Khan is a good fighter, and Devon is a good fighter too, so I think for them to get back out in that spot light, like how they were before. I think they got to put on a good show and the fight will be a good step out for whoever wins and if it’s in a good fashion way, you will be seeing more of them again.
Robert Brown: Back to Mayweather vs. Pacquiao. If those two ever did fight, who would win?
Paul Williams: I wouldn’t know. To me, I’m a fighter, I’m going to say I’m going to win a fight because I’m fighting this guy. If someone else fights him, I don’t know what they are going to do, I don’t pick them like that. I pick them if they get in the ring and they’re gonna fight, I gauge them round for round. That’s how I pick my winners.
They’re both at the top of their game, they’ve proven they are elite fighters, so you can say he’s gonna go in there and do this. But I will say this, Mayweather’s got a better style than Pacquiao, boxing wise, so he would outbox Pacquiao, but I think Pacquiao will out slug Mayweather, with his slugging style, it’s reckless.
You would have to get in the ring and match them up and see how Mayweather would deal with it, so that’s why I can’t say Pacquiao will beat him or Mayweather will beat him, I would love to see it if it did happen.
Robert Brown: Let’s turn things back to you. You had a world title fight scheduled for September 2012 against Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, but because of your accident that fight never happened. Do you think you would have beaten him if wasn’t for the accident?
Paul Williams: Of course I would have beaten him! Nothing against his skills but like Floyd said, “He’s never been tested.” I was gonna be that guy that was gonna be in his face the whole night. I would be getting my punches in, I know he would be getting his in and he was gonna hit me with good shots but he wasn’t gonna knock me out.
If it would have gone the twelve rounds, I was gonna get it. Other than knocking me out, he wasn’t gonna get it. They know my fighting style but I look at it like it was probably a blessing for me to go down on that motorcycle because say if I would have taken that fight with him, I know I would have won but I would have been taking punches like I always took punches and I thought I could have been brain dead. I could have been messed up, talking all kind of crazy. So I thank God and it is what it is.
Robert Brown: I would like to ask you about the Paul Williams foundation. What is involved with the foundation and how can people donate.
Paul Williams: I’ve been going around doing motivational speaking to people and kids, young athletes, people that got hurt. You never know when your last step is, so that doesn’t mean you need to go down and out, you can have all this life. Look at me, I had all this stuff going on, all this fame, money, and boom I’m back to being the average Joe, Paul Williams.
You don’t need to be depressed, mad or sad and stuff, because then you got two problems, you can’t walk and you’re mad and depressed. Just keep one problem you’re dealing with, trying to walk or whatever your situation may be. Eliminate all that bad negative stuff, eliminate all that. Just keep it to one problem you get, worry about that and you and God will work through that.
I tell my fans to keep and eye out on my foundation, my website at paulthepunisher.com and they will learn more about my foundation and what I will be doing. Also follow me on instagram @paulpunisher1.
Also follow Paul Williams at his Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008236458381&fref=ts
Great to hear from you champ . . .
All the best to you and yours.
What a great guy ! so positive ! hes right he would have beaten canelo and prob beaten mayweather.. but mayweather ducked him.. both manny and paul williams are south paw an both throw 1000 punches a fight, both just keep coming forwards .. thats thye style mayweathwer advoids .. margirito was another he ducked.. paulwilliams foundation FOR THE WIN !
Pacman will surely grilled Mayweather like a grilled chicken. A flat footed Maidana was able to tag mayweather at the rope how much more with the agility, blinding footspeed and handspeed of pacman. definitely pacman will cut the ring way better than any other opponent mayweather has ever had. Its going to be a worst nigntmare fight for mayweather thats the reason why he’s tentaive fighting the pacman. LLLLET’S GET READY TO RUMMMMBBBLLLLEE. . .
I wish we had somebody equivalent to maidana to compare Manny with being that since his knocked out he hasn’t looked the same, I guess that’s why he looking good against fighters that has no business fighting him. Con job by the one and only Bob arum..He learned from the best, Don king
You give Mayweather absolutely no credit for a record of 48-0.Which means your biased and don’t know alot about boxing or greatness !
Paul Williams has a good logical approach to this Mayweather-Pacquiao fight. Nice one.Keep it up,Paul Williams.
Floydies Birdie will be knocked out cold by Pacman’s fists. This is if Floydie will fight the little man from the Philippines.
Oh yeah just like Juan Manuel marquez who destroyed pacquiao and who mayweather beat at least 10 out of 12 rounds !
.you are a way above average;.Paul.
Paul Williams one of the reasons mayweather went into hiding(I mean retirement) he wanted nothing to do with the big boys he would of never got in the ring with u ….if ur not to busy maybe u can tech him some class
What a dumb stupid and incorrect statement in regards to fact that mayweather has never got in there with the big boys ! Why even make a comment atall !
Paul Williams said it close to best. However my trainer the Legendary DT would put it with a little more of a prelude. “History is most qualified to reward all research. The history of both fighters is this. Pacquiao is going to come in shape and ready to fight without a shadow of a doubt. He has done so successfully over the last several recent years. UNTIL you look at his fights with Juan Manuel Marquez in particular which BOTH fighters share a history of fighting against. Pacquiao had 3 fights with him 2 of which were life and death for Pacquiao leaving Pacquiao knocked out in one of those two. The other, Pacquiao won not necessarily that much of a margin as he should have but it’s a win…. At the end of the day Pacquiao WILL come to fight but he gets hit too easily, something like a Philippino Marciano just without the Rocks’ chin or record, he fights with his face as well as his fists. Mayweather now on the other hand has fought Juan Manuel Marquez only once and outclassed him 12 out of 12 rounds… OK maybe not 12 but at least 10 or 11 lol that’s me the fighter talking by saying 12 for 12.. But yea… now the history of Floyd Mayweather is this… Floyd’s has had his share of almost close to life or death bouts as far as his UNBLEMISHED boxing récord is concerned. He’s been “tested” to say the least against Castillo TWICE, he’s been tested with Zab Judah early, Miguel Cotto early, Demarcus ‘Chop Chop’ Corley early, and MOST CLEARLY AND CLEANLY against Sugar Shane Mosley making Floyd do the wildest dance ever seen ANYONE make him do EVER. But EVEN THEN you saw another part of his training that we seldom see from him because we’re so use to seeing him dominate opponents. And as a result of that we dismiss this part of his pedigree. No one in a fight, street fight or any other fight, is gonna get stunned and want to await the finishing blow that most likely will follow the micro mano second your opponent realizes you’re stunned. We see MOST fighters, good AND GREAT, panic and — USE a defense mechanism BUT OFTEN TIMES BECA– USE OF THE PANIC 1ST THEY CHOSE THE WRONG DEFENSE. they will backpeddle when they should side step or weave, they try and parry when they should be blocking or vice versa and so forth. Mayweather realized he was in trouble and held on when he should have. Doing anything else in front of Mosley whether it be back pedaling, or blocking, or standing toe to toe would have most likely yielded a knockdown at least. A VETERAN MOVE due to VETERAN thinking. And you don’t think that well as a veteran without putting yourself in that type of predicament DAILY with the best upcoming and raw qualified sparring talent to whoop up on his ass every sparring day or at least try. It can also be argued that he lost a few of the early rounds in the 1st Marcos Maidana fight. But again whoever who has applied pressure we have seen him respond accordingly whether he needed to backpeddle, cover up, hold on, stand and fight or counter then run, he’s done it and done so at the right junctures minimizing the damage the one or two clean or glancing blows that landed would do at the time during the fight allowing him to recover come back and fight some more either in the same rounds or future rounds to come”….As Paul alluded to, ultimately both are great fighters but one consistently fights great. We’ll see come fight night
Beautifully put, someone who finally has class and knowledge about boxing……wonderfull !
Floyd cannot toe to toe with pacman because floyd is a hit and run ,afraid to get hit!
Rolly ummmmmmmmmmm the sport is called boxing. Aka the sweet science of hitting and not getting hit. Are you an idiot? Who wants to hit someone just to be hit equally as much or as hard? FOR WHOEVER IT IS THAT DON’T KNOW BOXING ALLOW ME TO JUST SLAP THE SH*T OUTA YOU. Then as if you don’t have any better f*cking sense stand there and let me do it again over and over without taking a step back or to the side or back all the way the f*ck up to regain your composure and go again. You wouldn’t do that would you? ( to all the jackasses that think blocking or hitting someone then getting out the way is WRONG.) Well if you won’t just stand there when I slap you let alone hit you what make you think a fighter should just stay there? Just because we get paid? The object is to knock the other man out without getting knocked out yourself. Real DUMBASSES I tell ya. Smmfh
Very good points !
Dumb comment !
Object of the game is hit and not get hit point blank.
If pacman and mayweather will fight i think pacman will win …..
I find maywesther fans more knowledgeable and insightful about the sport than pac fans. I am not a fan of mayweathet’s off the ring antiques, but I am a fan of his boxing dorminance. besides bradley I do not seen any tough fighter the philipino had fought since the mexican put him to sleep. If floyed is that much of a chicken then let the philipino fight canelo very soon while mayweather fights Algerie prior to them meeting. How about that pac fans, now what.
Exactly right, intelligent comment !
Mayweather The Best Excuses (TBE) in the Ring…
Dickhead !
Youre record 48-0 will be nooottthhhing!!!! if u dont fight pacman
Duwag! walang bayag
Yeah it will mean he is undefeated unlike pacman who got destroyed by marquez and who mayweather crowned beating him at least 10 out of 12 rounds ! Mayweather haters will never be happy whatever he does !
God bless ur path . You one off the best boxer that I seen fight
I feel most Philippine people will not speak the truth on how great floyd really is, in fear of bein attacked by their peers. Ive never once read an article that depicted any truth about floyds greatness. As an American black male , yes I wil say its somethings that im not proud of that floyd’s done outside the ring . But , that doesn’t take away his accomplishments in the ring . @ least I can be honest with my comments. I wish that everyone that post a comment watch more than one fight and quit makin assessments based off of the only fight u seen, or wht ur so called friend told u that has a bias opinion. If we are to be honest with ourselves we need to look @ every fight floyd has fought not jst these last few . But , if you’re a true boxing analyst go back and look @ his greatness . Manny was never a true boxer . He was jst a slugger . But, this notion of him becomin this great boxer is unheard of . As matter of fact when the balco steroid scandal came out . Alot of guys that I truly liked went frm bein the pound for pound to gettin knckd out … ie Roy jones , Shane mosley jst to name few . But as u can see a boxer that went up 8 weight divisions is no longer carin that power when he destroyed Shane , Cotto, Oscar, and Margarito. But , went the distance with Chris Algeria . Fans plz be honest wit urslf ! The juice was lose. His own trainer ie… Freddie Roach said that he didnt knw wht his strength and conditioning coach was giving him “Mr Alex Ariza” . But he said he knew it wasn’t right. Cause he wouldn’t tell Freddie wht was in it . Loook @ photos of b4 and after of Pacman. The truth hrts us @ x’s but last be honest wit ourselves. Thnk u for readin
Allegations are allegations until you proven right, Junius Blackwell. I am only hoping to see Mayweather stop ducking and finally fight.
EVEN IF YOU ARE RIGHT THAT ALEX ARIZA GAVE PACQUIAO SOMETHING, BEFORE ALEX ARIZA OR FREDDIE ROACH, PACQUIAO HAD BEE KNOCKING PEOPLE LEFT AND RIGHT.
JUAST LET THE FIGHT HAPPEN, NO MORE DUCKING…..