This looked like a competitive match-up, if not a guaranteed entertaining fight. Apparently, however, Williams insisted that it be at 160 rathre than 154. I don't think Martinez belongs at 160, this lessens its interest value for me. If Williams can't or won't go lower than 160, maybe we can all now stop talking about him fighting mosley or mayweather etc. I'm sure Martinez won't mind as he gets to keep his (interim?) belt at 154, but its pretty disappointing IMO because it means less.
I agree it's disappointing that Williams will basically be taking on a smaller guy. Honestly, when you consider that Williams has no business below 160, it's difficult to call him the most avoided fighter in boxing. Still, it's possible Williams could still make 154 - you have to keep in mind that he's been training (presumably) for a fight at 160. For him to have to suddenly make 154, not having planned to do so - I'm not sure it's reasonable to expect him to do so. Honestly, I don't know why in the hell Williams doesn't fight another middleweight. Has he beaten a single middle-weight? I'm going to go ahead and say that Williams is over-rated right now when you consider what he's accomplished.
Like you said, he was preparing for Pavlik, which means its harder to criticise his reluctance to go further down in weight, or even criticise his opponent level - it wasn't him who pulled out of the big middleweight fight. Plus there's bugger all else at MW outside of Pavlik, its a real wasteland (I'm not even counting Sturm). However, its still a typical HBO mix-and-match weightclass fight which is annoying.
Who says Williams would've even come in at 160 for Pavlik, though? Wasn't that the limit for the Wright fight? I thought that's what I read they agreed to, and he was only 157 for that...and that wasn't that long ago. OTOH, if it's at 160 then Martinez isn't risking his 154 title, so maybe that's a good thing for him.
Now everyone mentioning Williams in 147 pound fights can shut the fuck up. The guy won't even go to 154 let alone 147.
Is it really all that sudden? I mean, for a fighter who hasn't actually weighed 160 in a while, even for fights above 154, and whose camp claims he can still make 147?
That' s stupid even for you. He was preparing for a middleweight fight. Why risk losing too much weight in a month because Pavlik won't fight him.
I'd have preferred Williams fight Dzindiruk, I believe they were negotiating, what happenned to this fight please source shark.
You can tell me "I told you so" if Williams ever fights at 147 again. Then you can call me stupid all you want.
nobody is twisting martinez arm to take this fight at 160. if he doesnt think he can compete at that division then he can pass on the opportunity.
yeah. Martinez has all the marbles, right? and plenty of HBO dates coming his way. just because a fighter doesn't get all of the terms he wants doesn't mean he's not going to do his best to make a living and take advantage of opportunities. Look at Malignaggi. He seemed to know going into the Diaz fight he would get screwed but because he wants to make a living and take all of the fights he can, he went ahead with it.
Martinez seems like a pretty good opponent to get on a month's notice IMO, coming up a bit in weight or not. I don't blame Williams for not coming down in weight in this case since he had been training for Pavlik. Plus, last time he busted his ass to make weight in the last minute against a slick boxer, he looked like he was plodding around in mud all fight, and Quintana made him look pretty silly. Martinez is capable of the exact type of performance as Quintana, given the right conditions. If Williams beats Martinez it probably won't be a signature win for him but it's a good fight to stay busy until Pavlik gets healthy..........if he ever does.
