WILLIAMS, BERTO SEEK TO ROCK ON

Paul Williams has graduated from super prospect to world champion. Andre Berto is on target to get his diploma, and perhaps will meet up with Williams down the line. First, they must take care of business in a double header which features four fighters with a combined record of 120-3.

by Nat Gottlieb

Williams (33-0) vs. Quintana (24-1)

Carlos Quintana must know something the rest of the boxing world doesn't about Paul Williams.

Recently a writer friend of mine in Puerto Rico, Luis Cadiz, cornered Quintana at a press conference on the island for the Jones-Trinidad fight last month. At the time, Williams' welterweight unification fight with Kermit Cintron had been called of because Cintron had suffered a hand injury in November. Quintana was approached by the Williams camp about fighting him, and quickly took the challenge.

"I suggested to Carlos that he should have waited for Kermit to heal and try taking him on," Luis said. "I though it would be easier to handle him (Cintron) than Paul. But Quintana doesn't seem to be impressed with Paul's style or physical advantages."

Perhaps then, Carlos Quintana is in need of a quick refresher course on the fighter they call "The Punisher." First, Williams' physical advantages.

Williams is freakishly big for a welterweight, with very long arms and wide shoulders reminiscent of a young Tommy Hearns. At 6'-1", Williams is bigger than the other three welterweight champions, and probably the entire top ten in the division. Quintana is 5'-9 1/2" and will be giving up three and a half inches. Because of his height, Williams gets extra leverage and power on his punches.

While Williams' size makes for a difficult assignment, shorter fighters often beat taller fighters, as the 5'-7" Miguel Cotto has so aptly demonstrated since joining the welterweight ranks.

It is not Williams' height that Quintana has to worry about as much as his incredibly wide wing span of 82 inches, which is 10 more than the challenger's. To put that kind of reach in perspective, Williams' 82 inches is longer than any of the four current reigning heavyweight champions, including 6'-6 1/2 " Wladimir Klitschko, who stretches an inch less.

But the true significance of Williams' reach lies in his style of fighting. Williams, like lightweight champion Juan Diaz, is a punching machine. His trainer, George Peterson, has Williams' gear box set on high, which means Quintana can expect to see roughly 100 punches a round flying at him from what will look like a whirling tent pole. In Williams' last fight, for example, in which he dethroned champion Antonio Margarito, CompuBox had the winner throwing a total of 1,256 punches.

Complicating Quintana's assignment is that Williams is not just a big guy who throws a lot of wild punches like a Ricardo Mayorga. Despite having had just 10 amateur fights before turning pro in 2000, Williams under Peterson's astute training has become a very skilled, polished fighter. For a big man, he moves very well and can use the whole ring, which might come in handy if Quintana doesn't like the taste of leather and uses his good lateral movement to try and escape the onslaught.

Williams bolsters his non-stop assault by constantly switching angles, making it very difficult to anticipate where a punch is coming from. And while Quintana is a very accurate counter-puncher, Williams frequently moves his head and shoulders side to side so he is rarely a stationary target.

Quintana also can expect to see a wide variety of punches. Williams likes to set up his attack with his long and strong right jab, often doubling up on the punch before following through with staccato-like left crosses down the middle. Williams also likes to hook off the jab with his right hand, arguably his best punch.

If Williams has one possible weakness coming into this fight it is that he hasn't fought in the seven months since he beat Margarito in July. It is not an unusual layoff for an elite fighter, given the limited number of TV dates available, but Williams is used to fighting much more frequently. Williams fought three times in 2005, four in 2006 and then just once last year. In his previous 10 fights before 2007, Williams had fought at an average of every 3.5 months.

Still, Williams is like Floyd Mayweather and Bernard Hopkins, a gym rat who is never out of shape. Peterson is also a demanding trainer, making Williams throw a minimum of 100 punches per round while sparring. He should be dead fit.

So if Quintana isn't impressed with Williams, what does the Puerto Rican fighter bring to the table that makes him so eager to face the undefeated champion?

A 1996 Olympian, Quintana is an excellent boxer and counter-puncher with fast hands, a hard, staccato-like jab, and if you make a mistake he will punish you with left crosses and a right hook that is hard to see coming. Although Williams has knocked out 24 of his 33 opponents, he does not hit as hard as Quintana, whose 24 victories include 19 knockouts. Williams is a lumberman, chopping down trees. Quintana can rattle your brain or rib cage with one shot, which he demonstrated to Cotto during their championship match in June of 2006.

Quintana quit on his stool after a fifth round in which he was knocked down twice. But in the four previous rounds, Quintana had connected with several thudding shots, including a wicked left to the stomach with 1:12 to go in the fourth round that doubled up Cotto. Entering the fifth round, Quintana was behind by just a point on all three cards.

Prior to fighting Cotto, Quintana had scored a surprising unanimous decision over the then super prospect, hard-hitting Joel Julio, who had been 27-0 with 26 knockouts. That victory set him up to fight Cotto for a vacant title. Losing to Miguel Cotto, who at this point is generally more highly-regarded than Williams, is of course no disgrace, and Peterson is not underestimating him.

In a recent interview with Williams' hometown newspaper in South Carolina, the Aiken Standard, Peterson was quoted as saying: "Quintana is a fighter like Paul has never fought before. He's real slick, and he's a very good boxer. He's a dangerous boxer, and when you get to this level, everyone's dangerous."

While Williams is coming into this fight off a seven-month layoff and could conceivably be rusty, Quintana may have more cobwebs than the champion to shake off. After losing to Cotto, Quintana had a nine-month layoff before beating journeyman Christopher Henry on a 4th round TKO in September. What that means is that in the last 14 months, Quintana has fought just four rounds.

That being said, layoffs have not stopped Quintana before. Quintana has won coming off layoffs of seven months twice, eight months and 14.

Quintana is, as Peterson says, a dangerous opponent. But his greatest strength -- polished boxing skills - can be negated. Cotto did it with his powerful body shots. While Williams doesn't have Cotto's power, his constant barrage of punches will make it very hard, if not impossible, for Quintana to get untracked. Look for a Williams' stoppage before the seventh round.

Berto (20-0) vs. Trabant (43-2-1)

On first glance, the German Michel Trabant has a very impressive record. But like a lot of European and Mexican fighters, it is a highly-inflated one fought against more tomato cans that you might find on a supermarket shelf. Trabant has also fought all but two of his bouts in Germany, with one commute each to nearby Poland and Hungary.

So while Trabant has far more ring experience - having fought a total of 272 rounds to just 74 for Berto - an inordinate number of the German's rounds were little more than public sparring sessions.

Berto, a 2004 Olympian, has fought his share of gimmes, too, but of his 20 opponents, 18 had winning records. Where was Trabant in his 20th bout? Fighting a rematch with one Mazasi Kangodi, who was 5-18-8 and lasted the full six rounds. Prior to facing Kangodi, Trabant had not fought a single fighter with a winning record. His 19 prior opponents had a combined record of 28-106.

In his last fight, Berto significantly stepped up his level of opponent when he stopped David Estrada in the 11th round of a 12-round fight. Estrada had gone the distance in losing to Shane Mosley in 2005 and was leading on all three scorecards in the 11th round against Kermit Cintron in 2006 when the current champion stopped him.

But Trabant is still something of a step-up for Berto. At 29, Trabant is a two-time EBU (European) welterweight champion, and has fought three top class opponents, losing to Jose Antonio Rivera for a vacant world title, beating Michele Orlando in 2006 and splitting two fights with Frederic Klose.

What does Berto, who is ranked in the top two of two sanctioning bodies, bring to the table?

Berto is a classic boxer-puncher. His best assets are power (17 KOs) and fast hands. He's a very muscular, strong boxer who fights from a compact stance. Berto boxes well off a stinging jab he has been working on. Against Estrada he demonstrated how effective his jab could be. Berto used his jab more than ever before against Estrada, throwing 35 in the first round alone. In contrast to say a Williams, Berto doesn't throw a lot of punches. He's a precision puncher, a very patient and poised boxer with power in both hands.

Brought along slowly by promoter Lou DiBella, Berto first stepped up his level of opponent two fights ago, when he took on a rugged and experienced Cosmo Rivera, who was 30-10-2 and had only been knocked out once, by Zab Judah in 2005. Before Rivera faced Berto, he had given Julio all he could handle, losing a split decision by scores of 112-115, 113-114, and 115-112.

Berto won a unanimous decision over Rivera, but not before he was tested. In the sixth round Rivera - who likes to switch from orthodox to southpaw and back - suddenly switched to lefty and caught Berto with a stinging left upper cut. The unbeaten young fighter hit the canvas for the first time in his career.

Berto showed his grit, however, and came right back fighting hard. In the 10th and final round, well ahead on the scorecards, the 24-year-old came out with mean intentions, fighting all-out until the final bell.

In Trabant, Berto is not in much danger of getting knocked down. Of his 43 wins, only 19 have come by way of knockout. Since stepping up the level of his competition, Trabant shows just one victory by knockout in his last eight fights.

Trabant's biggest strength is that he is a very slick, skilled boxer, something Berto has never faced as a pro. But Berto has a strong amateur background, having won the 2001 and 2003 National Golden Gloves, and captured a bronze medal at the 2003 World Championships in Bangkok. Slick should be no problem for him.

Last year Trabant began being trained by world class conditioner Ulli Wegner, who has trained champions like Sven Otke and Markus Beyer, and currently has middleweight title holder Arthur Abraham in his stable.

In his last two fights, both with his new trainer, it is hard to see any significant improvement in Trabant. Two bouts ago, Trabant fought Albert Starikov, who was just 8-6. Starikov took Trabant the full scheduled eight rounds and the more accomplished fighter only managed to win by scores of 77-75, 79-75 and 80-74. A shutout would have seemed more in order for a fighter with 41 victories.

Trabant's last fight, with Italian Giammario Grassellini (16-1-1), ended in a technical draw.

Berto has been touted for a world championship since he came out of the Olympics. It is hard to see a fighter of Trabant's caliber, despite his padded record, faring well against Berto. Despite his relative lack of experience, Berto seems destined to move onward and upward and maybe one day find himself in a ring at the same time as Williams. Now that is something to look forward to.