Dan Goossen; “We feel that the best welterweight in the world today is Paul Williams”
 By Gabriel Montoya (Aug 20, 2007) Doghouse Boxing
Last week, Dan Goossen took time out of his busy schedule to talk with Doghouseboxing.com about the future of Goossen-Tutor Promotions’ young stable of rising stars. From Eddie Chambers to Paul Williams, Dan gave us the low down on what’s to come.
Gabriel Montoya: The guy I am really curious about is ‘Fast’ Eddie Chambers. I hear he is scheduled to fight Calvin Brock. Is that fight set?
Dan Goosen: Details are still tentative but we anticipate the fight happening.
GM: It seems you are quietly becoming a player I the heavyweight division. You have Arreola and Chambers. Any other heavyweights you’re carrying?
DG: The heavyweights, Gabriel, have always been a fascination of the American public. Right now when people talk about the woes of boxing they are talking about the lack of a heavyweight champion. That’s how important it is. They don’t speak about the welterweight division is lacking. It’s always the heavyweight division. That’s really where the focus is. We’re very much attuned to that. As such we’ve always looked for that heavyweight. We certainly feel we have a few of them.
GM: Chris Arreola is certainly exciting. I’d never seen him live until July 14th and I was blown away. To see that power up close and personal was very impressive.
DG: What I like to say is that he has got that style that the fans really do love. It’s the old Marvin Hagler, Mike Tyson, destroy and destruct attitude.
GM: Which is rare. You can teach every else but you can’t teach that.
DG: He’s a ferocious, hard working, big strong heavyweight.
GM: What’s next for him?
DG: We have a September 21st Telefutura date with Cristobal. We’ll have an announcement on the opponent in the next few days but I’ll go ahead and give you the lead on it, Gabriel. It will be Thomas Hayes. The once defeated Thomas Hayes.
GM: Cool. Thank you very much for that. And Andre Ward? Will he be fighting on that card?
DG: No. Andre will not be fighting on that card. We’re working on Andre’s next fight now. It will be sometime in the last quarter of the year.
GM: Okay.
DG: Just so you know, we were very ecstatic with his performance on the 14th as well. Just the progress he has made is tremendous.
GM: I missed his fights up in San Jose. I had really only seen him early on in his career on HBO. I hadn’t seen him until now and was very impressed by how far he has come. What a shot he landed. That left uppercut/hook was a thing of beauty.
DG: That was great. I just think his speed and the intangibles that we saw that night really reflected what the attractions was when he came out of the Olympics as a gold medal winner.
GM: Absolutely.
DG: He fought a very determined fighter that night. One that felt he could beat Andre that night.
GM: I was impressed. I had the fight nip and tuck as each fighter jockeyed for control until Andre landed that shot and turned the lights out.
DG: One of the great things I like about Andre inside the ring now, and I am going to contradict what you just said, is that he has that confidence now. He’s in complete control even though some one is on the other side trying to take it away from. Andre just looks too determined and too focused too intent in preventing that from happening.
GM: I certainly saw that.
DG: He is a fighter that has the ability to go all the way.
GM: Seeing those first few HBO fights, I was sure what I seeing. Was he prospect that wouldn’t pan out? But seeing him now, I was impressed. It was a huge progression. He looks like a different fighter. Much more seasoned, much more relaxed.
DG: I think if you look at his record, you’ll see we’ve done this with other fighters, is we have put him in with real fighters. He could be 13-0 with 13 knockouts but I don’t think we would have seen the level of ability that we have seen out of him lately. I think a lot of damage is done with fighters that believe that they can beat King Kong when they haven’t really fought anyone.
GM: Yeah.
DG: With Andre, his management and himself and his trainer, they all believe that they can beat King Kong and for the most part, the highest percentage of his opponents that would beat a lot of middleweight and super middleweight that are out there. We felt that was part of his growth period and the results of what we have seen in his last few fights, which have been knockouts, real knockouts, so that confidence is against live opposition and real fighters.
GM: He’s learning how to set that up. I didn’t realize what kind of power he had. He wasn’t just going for the knockout the whole time. He was just boxing, boxing and then out of nowhere this huge shot comes. It was beautiful.
DG: What we are seeing is the results of a professional in Andre.
GM: Absolutely. Everybody I talk to, writers, I talk to the fans a lot on a few message boards, and they all agree that July 14th was a huge night for boxing. With Cintron’s explosive knockout and then the crown jewel of the night: Paul Williams’s performance against Antonio Margarito. What’s next for Paul? What are we going to see from him next?
DG: As he said after the fight, he is looking for the biggest and the best. That was from Mayweather on down. We have stated that is what we are looking to do in his next. We are not looking to do a second, third or fourth tier level fight. We want every fight to be as big as it can be. And with the sole intent and purpose of fighting our way to where no one who perceives themselves as better than Paul Williams can avoid him. We’ve certainly established ourselves in a situation where no one can say he hasn’t beaten anyone now. He’s beaten a champion who held that title for 5 years. Now I know why so many people avoided him. A very, very tough fighter in Antonio Margarito. Obviously there was millions that the fighters earned on that fight. Money and establishing yourself as someone who just beat somebody has taken away any possible reason for anyone not wanting to fight Paul other than the fact that he is going to be a hard man to not just fight but beat. So we want to cut through that and you know, be ready to fight anyone in the world to prove who the best welterweight in the world is.
GM: The welterweight division is huge. It’s hot. It’s probably the best division in the sport today. Mayweather, Hatton are locked up. Cotto and Mosley are all locked up. The fighter I spoke to this week as well as his manger, Emanuel Steward is Cintron. Now his quote, I asked him if he wanted to fight Paul Williams in December because they (Steward and Cintron) are looking to finish out the year with a fight in December, and he said, “I’d fight him any day. I’m not impressed with Paul Williams.” He feels he ‘d beat him and that he has the people to prepare to beat him. Now going for a super fight with Mayweather, who is notoriously hard to negotiate with or to get into the ring, wouldn’t it be best to take out Cintron, take his belt, and then have two belts to offer any of these big name opponents?
DG: There’s a few alternatives and certainly Cintron is there. One of the great things about Paul Williams is that there is no one that he would not take up the challenge with. Cintron certainly was impressive in that fight against Matthyse. Certainly would be someone to be considered along with Antonio Margarito who put up a gallant fight and the fans loved it. It did the welterweight division justice. As it relates to the welterweight division being the hottest, I’ll agree with you Gabriel, it is. And from that end of it we want the biggest, the best fights we can get coming out of the box. So, you know, going back to that fight, that’s what we are going to look for.
We are going to look for the biggest and highest profile fight out there. With Cotto and Mosley official and Hatton and Mayweather official, obviously the Margaritos and Cintrons become more of a possibility.
GM: It seemed in a way that HBO was showcasing those two fighters. Generally they put fighters together on cards like that as a lead in to a fight down the line. To me it seems like a natural. I mean, the fans, certainly most everyone I have spoken to and many on the message boards seem to believe that with Paul’s attributes and his style he can beat just about anybody. But they also agree that they want to see him in tough. They don’t want to see him in with a stay busy fight and they really want to see him in against Cintron. I know he wants the fight. IS it a choice between Margarito and Cintron?
DG: No not necessarily because things are unfolding not as rapidly as we thought it would. But things are unfolding in the welterweight division right now and they will give us a clearer picture on where to go. But when everything is said and done, if you want the level of fight we are looking for Cintron’s in the picture. Margarito is in the picture. Paul is prepared to take on any of them and keep on fighting his way to the top. We feel today that regardless of where Cotto and Mosley are at and regardless of where Mayweather and Hatton that the best welterweight in the world today is Paul Williams. He does need any more seasoning or any more proving that point. And I believe that the four fighters we just discussed believe it and know it. What we are going to do is keep moving forward. Whoever Paul has to knock to eventually make one of these other fighters that want to claim to be the best 147 get in the ring with him, that’s who we’ll beat.
GM: Fair enough.
DG: And another thing Gabriel, boxing has been doing a great job this year. And has done a good job with the promoters, fighters and managers. It’s kind of like I said with Andre Ward. We all agreed that we wanted to put him in tough right out of the box. The purpose to build a fighter who would be a world champion and stay a world champion for many years to come. You don’t get there by not understanding that you have to fight you way to get there. This is the same thing that Paul has done. Paul has been willing to fight anyone. So from that end of it, the best way for him to show that he is the preeminent welterweight in the word. He doesn’t need to tell anyone that someone’s ducking him because the media will take care of that. If the people that are or want to be perceived as the best welterweight in the world, the media will mention it. Paul won’t have to do it. Paul just has to go out and continue doing what he is doing. And that is proving inside the ring that he is willing to fight anyone; which he is. And that he is willing to fight his way to prominence.
GM: Is there a possibility that he doesn’t fight at all the rest of this year?
DG: As you know the dates are limited for the rest of the year. Right now we are discussing availability. What the facts are they are. If there are no more dates there are no more dates. We’ll look to get him right back to a featured championship fight and we will look to do that as soon as possible. We’re just looking right now to get him the best date.
GM: Thank you, Dan.
DG: Thank you, Gabriel. Anytime.
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