Paul "The Punisher" Williams will return to the junior middleweight division on July 9 against Erislandy Lara, and tells BoxingScene.com's Lem Satterfield that retirement is in his near future:
"When I retire, in about two years, they're going to say, 'He never ducked nobody,'" said Williams. "After two more fights, if HBO wants to do it and the fans want it, I'm up for it. But after three more fights -- though my trainer says two more -- I want to be done with boxing."
I don't go on board with the Williams "most ducked fighter" routine, but I don't go in for anyone being the most ducked fighter because it's just a promotional nickname that gets passed down the line constantly, but I can agree that Paul never ducked anybody.
Still, I tire of the retirement talk from all these guys. It's not that I'm saying they should fight forever to please me. I don't really care if guys retire young and get out with their money. But just go about your business and retire when you want to, because otherwise it comes off as more lame promotional stuff. "Ooh, I better watch this guy, he'll retire soon!" Plus we know they probably won't. Roy Jones Jr wasn't going to hang on either.
Also Dan Rafael mentioned on Twitter that a crap 126-pound trinket fight has been made for the off-TV undercard on July 9. Jhonny Gonzalez (48-7, 42 KO) will defend his WBC strap against Tomas Villa (23-7-4, 14 KO). Villa hasn't fought in a year and is realistically far from a contender. Gonzalez was previously rumored to be fighting Roinet Caballero. This is not a step up.