Paul Williams at 34: In His New Role as the Trainer on Showtime
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
*Photo Copyright Robert Brizel, Real Combat Media, All Rights Reserved
New York, NY (March 16th, 2016)– It seems like only yesterday this reporter and WBO World Welterweight champion Paul Williams stood side by side in Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. Years later, this reporter still goes to cover television sporting events in Atlantic City, New Jersey, as the journalist.
On May 27, 2012, Paul Williams became paralyzed from the waist down in a motorcycle accident after swerving to avoid an oncoming car. It would be hard to call Williams lucky. He lives, if one can call that lucky. Perhaps stem cell research will allow Williams to walk again. Football great Bart Starr and hockey great Gordie Howe are two living examples of sports figures whose quality of life has been improved by stem cell treatments. Perhaps Williams will be number three in the future.
Other boxers have been less fortunate when it comes to motorcycle accidents.
To name a few, former World Lightweight champion Diego Corrales died in May 2007 when he wiped out on his motorcycle in Las Vegas. In October 1933, heavyweight contender Young Stribling died after his motorcycle got hit by a car while riding to see his newborn baby in the hospital. Former WBO World Light Heavyweight champion Julio Cesar Gonzalez was fatally struck by a drunk driver while riding his motorcycle in Mexico in March 2012.
Whether Paul ‘The Punisher’ Williams can succeed as a trainer with Louisiana welterweight Justin DeLoach 13-1 with seven knockouts, against 16-0 Missouri super welterweight Dillon Cook in the opening eight round bout of a USA Showtime ShoBox: The New Generation quadruple header remains to be seen. The bout will take place on Friday, March 25, 2016, at Buffalo Run Casino, in Miami, Oklahoma.
The bout is a tossup. DeLoach has fought only three fighters with winning records, and one of them, Brooklyn fighter Cesar Vila, stopped him in the third round. Cook has fought only one fighter with a winning record, Kansas journeyman Noel Esquenda, and escaped with a narrow six round decision win decided by only one round on the scorecards. Cook has been in with tough fighters such as Rahman Yusubov (Win 8), Marteze Logan (Win 6), Noel Esqueda (Win 6), and Trenton Titsworth (Win 4). Williams’ fighter Cook is predicted to win by eight round decision, as his experience is a bit deeper than DeLoach. The fight, however, could be extremely close. All the best to Paul Williams in his new adventure as the trainer. It will, like everything else Paul Williams has lived and experienced, be a hard uphill battle to success for Paul as the teacher. It might work, if Paul can accept his new role gracefully. It will compliment his charitable foundation very well.
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