Goosen: Dzind, Cotto, Mosley, Pavlik, Hopkins have all been targeted for punishment

GL: Can you give us some thoughts on Wright-Williams and tell us why you think your guy is going to win?

DG: Like Arreola, Paul's on his way to making history. He won't be the first to have achieved it, but it hasn't been done for over a half century. Henry Armstrong defied the odds and all logic simultaneously fighting in a multitude of weight divisions. Williams, out of necessity, is doing the same. After regaining his Welterweight World Championship in June of 2008, he couldn't find any other welterweights willing to step in with him and went up to Middleweight to get a fight. In the fight after middleweight, Paul went down to Jr. Middleweight and won another World Championship after unsuccessfully seeking to defend his Welterweight Championship against a worthy challenger. Antonio Margarito, Shane Mosely, Michael Jennings, you name them they waffled. Now he's going back up in weight to challenge what is sure to be his biggest prize yet in the middleweight division, Winky Wright. Wright has beaten Shane Mosely twice, Felix Trinidad, toe-to-toe with Jermain Taylor and Bernard Hopkins and Paul now has the opportunity to capitalize on what is sure to be a hard-fought Punisher style victory. This is the fight that puts Paul's name at the top of the pound-for-pound list.


GL: Do you think the winner of this fight deserves to fight Pavlik next and what do you think of Pavlik's recent opponents?

DG: First the question is backwards. Does Pavlik deserve a shot against Williams with a victory over Wright? Paul has said recently that he would like to reclaim his Welterweight Championship. Who would take up that challenge? Shane Mosely? Miguel Cotto? You would have to ask those guys, but I don't figure they would rush to sign on the dotted line. There are no more excuses for another world champion not to step into the ring with Paul Williams, or should I say acceptable excuses. Can you imagine Paul beating Winky at middleweight and ready to fight for the championship he was forced to give up at 147-pounds? That would be history! Then at 154-pounds we have another champion in the WBO that is willing to fight Paul and quite frankly that alone qualifies him to be a real possibility in Sergiy Dzinziruk. Now we come to the middleweight division and you have Kelly Pavlik, the man that had a Williams fight but let the money interfere with better sense and proceeded to lose to a man that should be working his corner rather than beating him inside the ring in Hopkins. If Pavlik continues to challenge fighters such as he did last month, he will not have earned his right to get into the ring with Paul. Now if going between welterweight and middleweight didn't impress anyone, which would be virtually impossible to fathom, the fight that I heard George Peterson and Paul tell some media at our LA press conference on who they would want next with a victory over Wright was, get this, Bernard Hopkins. Is that big enough for you Greg? I would like to hear from all of your readers on their thoughts on Paul against Winky on April 11 and of course some of the names that I just mentioned here.

 

A few thoughts. Number 1, Goosen is completely out of line by suggesting that Pavlik needs to earn a shot at Williams. Pavlik is the champ. Williams is a contender. Williams needs to earn his shot at Pavlik. Number 2, Williams isn't fighting Hopkins. That's a completely ridiculous idea. Number 3, there are some great fights out there for Williams if he truly intends to campaign between 147 and 160. I hope some of these fights happen.

 

I actually think Williams has pretty good head movement.

 

We'll find out very shortly whether or not his head movement against Winky.

 

Yes, but this is all according to Arum. Pavlik, Goosen, and Williams all have a different story to tell.