According to El Nuevo Dia, Paul "The Punisher" Williams (33-1, 24KOs) is exercising a clause for an immediate rematch against WBO welterweight champion Carlos Quintana (24-1, 19KOs). Quintana won a upset unanimous decision over Williams on Feb. 9 in California. The paper notes that Williams' promoter Dan Goossen has made a request to the WBO for Williams to receive and immediate rematch against Quintana. The WBO has strict rules against immediate rematches taking place, unless there is a special circumstance like a controversial decision. Goossen already has a date lined up on HBO in June and the WBO is likely to grant an immediate rematch request when a major television date is involved. Lou DiBella, Quintana's promoter, tried to secure a bout with Shane Mosley, who instead picked Zab Judah for a May <NOBR>pay-per-view</NOBR> clash.
I don't see the outcome being any different. If anything Quintana might stop Williams next time around.
Gotta respect Williams for immediately going after the guy that made him look bad, though it might not be a smart move on his part. Hopefully he'll come in with a differant gameplan and look a little quicker then he did last time.
It's hard to imagine there being much interest from HBO or Showtime in airing this as a main event given how it played out...these guys are Shane Mosley and Winky Wright. If it is, hopefully they put a better fight on the undercard than Berto vs. another no-hoper. I'd been skeptical of Williams' defense after seeing him a few times live, but even I was surprised at how bad he looked against Quintana. After Williams' cuts heal, maybe he should take a fight in the interim before going right back at Quintana...but if he can improve on his performance similar to Taylor against Pavlik, it would at least repair some of the damage done to his reputation.
