PAUL WILLIAMS vs ANDY KOLLE

WEDNESDAY UPDATE

Fresh thoughts in final paragraph.

Welterweight champion Paul Williams does something that the old-school fighters used to do when he fights outside his own weight class on Versus this Thursday.

There’s no messing about at light-middle for Williams. It’s right up to 160 pounds to meet a game and durable opponent in Andy Kolle, a 26-year-old southpaw from Minnesota.

This something of a testing-the-waters fight fight for Williams. If he feels good and looks good at the heavier weight it opens up new avenues of possibility. If things don’t go as well as expected at 160 pounds, he can always stick to the welterweights.

Williams’s trainer and manager, George Peterson, points out that Williams fought several times as a middleweight earlier in his career before settling down at 147 pounds. Still, fighting at 160 again will be a change of pace for Williams. “It’s a new area for Paul,” manager Peterson said in a phone conversation this week, "but I don’t see Paul having a problem. I see Paul getting in there, taking his time and boxing this guy.

“Middleweight is a weight we’re going to be seeking after Paul’s finished cleaning out the welterweight division — and it’s just about cleaned out because nobody [at 147 pounds] wants to fight him. We’re looking to defend our belt on November 29 [on HBO], and from that time on we’re going to be seeking the middleweight division and possibly the junior middleweight.

“Of course, we’ve seen power with Paul putting on those few [extra] pounds — a change in power — but less speed. When I say less speed, less mobility is what I want to say. And that’s a plus for us, because we’re at the stage now where I want Paul to sit down more [on his punches] and not so much movement. We’re not looking to make a statement here.

We can come back and make a statement later; let’s just see how Paul handles the 160 pounds.”

Peterson expects Williams (who weighed in at 157 pounds on Wednesday) to enter the ring at no more than 163 or 164 pounds, which is basically his walking-around weight.

Kolle is a good test for Williams at the heavier weight. His only loss in 18 fights was to the Olympic gold medallist Andre Ward, and although Kolle was basically outclassed in that fight he was never off his feet and would probably have gone the distance had it not been for an eye injury that caused him to retire after six rounds.

While Kolle doesn’t have Williams’s speed or skill, he does have the advantage of being a natural middleweight meeting a welterweight and he is a tall fighter, although the 6ft 1in Williams looks taller in the weigh-in photo. Kolle has a reputation for taking a good punch, and Williams has never been a really big hitter, much more of a high-volume, wear-them-down puncher, so it seems certain that the fight will go a long way, maybe even the full 10 rounds. This is unlikely to be a quick win for Williams on the lines of his blowout of Carlos Quintana in their rematch, which was something of an aberration.

Kolle has won eight in a row since losing to Ward, outpointing home-state rival Matt Vanda and former Contender participant Jonathan Reid in his last two fights. He has a reputation as a sturdy, basic type of fighter who will keep plugging away.

Williams is a huge favourite but the main interest is not whether he wins, which really does seem a foregone conclusion, but how he performs and how hard he punches at this weight.

A clear win by decision for Williams or a late-rounds stoppage victory are clearly the likeliest outcomes.

Before speaking with George Peterson I was thinking on the lines of a stoppage win for Williams in about eight rounds, but it does seem that a 10-round boxing match is what they have in mind. In view of what the fighter’s manager had to say I wouldn’t be surprised to see the fight go the distance, but as of a couple of days ago I couldn't get away from a sneaking feeling that Williams might end this with a late-stages barrage, maybe in the ninth round. Actually, seeing as how big and strong Williams looks in the Wednesday weigh-in photo, that sneaking feeling about the stoppage has now been brought forward a round or two.