I think he's just short of HOF worthy. There's a few things he's missing. One of the many ironies is that Sergio (his main antagonist) went to MW and basically did what it was originally expected that he would do: beat Pavlik then carve out a niche as a very solid MW champion. I think if Paul had fought (and beat Pavlik), did a little bit more at WW, JMW, or MW he'd have gotten in. Basically Lara pushed him over the hill and the accident put the nail in the coffin.
One of the unfortunate things about Paul's career is that the Mayweather fight never happened before he outgrew 147.
Sad to say. Their standards are so pathetic this has a logic to it. Basically any well-known fighter gets in. Halls of Fame should be reserved for the best of the best. Unfortunately, the boxing hall of fame doesn't have the standards it should.
http://www.ibhof.com/pages/about/inductees/modern.html That's a link to the list of modern inductees. Paul has better wins on his resume than quite a few of the names on that list, of course if the HOF really was restricted to ATG's that beat elite fighters their own size in their primes a lot of said names would never have been inducted to begin with. So ideally Williams would not be a HOF'er but as things stand he has a solid case for being on there.
I think the Hall of Fame really is just for famous people. It has nothing to do with having an impressive resume. Stallone is in the HoF and has no resume at all. I expect Butterbean to eventually gets there. Think of anyone famous involved in boxing and this person will be inducted. Never heard of Paul Williams. I would guess it is a no in this case.
Atg Welter top 25 welterweight that beat margarito. That fight took a lot out of him. It was not natural imho
Besides Gatti and Vitali, who does he have a better resume than? (Im not being a smartass... im legitimately wondering)
Gatti's list of fight of the year type fights is considerably longer than Williams, not to mention he's the winner of one of boxings greatest trilogies of all time, which includes a fight that would be in many peoples top 10 fights, of all time. So, I guess if someone had the state of mind in which they want to take the Hall of Fames weakest link and lowest standard to hold every future candidate to from here on out, then even then... Williams clearly doesn't make the cut, imo.