April 11th, It's Official

By Mark Vester - BoxingScene.com

After some minor tweaking, Paul Williams (36-1, 27KOs) vs. Winky Wright (51-4-1, 25KOs) has been finalized for April 11 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. HBO will televise the fight. Williams, the current WBO interim-junior middleweight champion, will move up to 160-pounds to fight Wright, who is a former undisputed champion at 154 and fighting for the first time since a July 07 decision loss to Bernard Hopkins.

Williams is hoping that a win over Wright will inch him in the direction of a major fight. He wants Shane Mosley, and Wright has two strong wins over Mosley. In 2008, Williams began to make his point of fighting any opponent at any weight by jumping between welterweight, junior middleweight and middleweight. Wright is in dire need of a big win. He stayed on the sidelines for too long and a win over Williams would put him back in the mix for big fights.

"This gives Paul Williams that name fighter, it puts him up atop the heap as the most preeminent fighter from 147 pounds to 160. Fighting a guy who's been avoided too gives him a great opportunity to show his dominance again," Goossen told The Los Angeles Times.