Fear of falling is hurting the 'sweet science'

Imagine if all sports operated like boxing. It would be a disaster.

Might IMG issue a release saying Tiger Woods withdraws from his Sunday afternoon tee time because Y.E. Yang isn't a name enough challenger to further his agenda?

Would Ohio State come up with excuses to back out of a BCS title game because whichever Southeastern Conference team it was to face is likely to expose it as overrated?

Would Roger Federer have just stopped showing up at the French Open because Roland Garros Stadium didn't suit his strengths against Rafael Nadal?

Thankfully, the rest of the sports world doesn't work like this. The best seek out the best. The underdogs have opportunities to create upsets.

Only boxing shoots itself in the foot by avoiding the matchups that everybody wants to see just because somebody is afraid of falling. A guy like Paul Williams doesn't get the chance to prove his superiority in the ring because guys with reputations to lose are afraid to lose them.

The sweet science is often replaced by the not-so-sweet silence when "The Punisher" comes calling for a fight.

This is what makes the cancellation of the Aiken boxer's Oct. 3 middleweight title fight with WBO/WBC champion Kelly Pavlik such a huge disappointment. This was a fight everybody wanted to see. This was a fight that defines careers.

Sadly, this is a fight that might never happen. Pavlik's camp postponed the fight citing an infected finger. Williams' promoters were seeking an independent doctor's opinion this week to verify that the injury is legitimate.

"Right now we're in the process of fact-finding," said Dan Goossen, the president of Goossen Tutor Promotions.

Goossen was careful not to diminish the dangers of a staph infection, which is what Pavlik's camp say is keeping their fighter out of the ring. But things are not always as they are said to be in boxing.

"Even though this is the boxing business, hopefully when we read things that they're accurate," Goossen said.

The Williams camp -- which has been working in Washington, D.C., to get ready for the fight in Atlantic City, N.J., that would be televised by HBO -- believes other factors are at work. They've been down this road too often before as Williams lives up to his label as the most avoided fighter in the world.

"We feel good about it that there's no way that this guy (Pavlik) can do anything with Paul Williams under no circumstances," said George Peterson, Williams' trainer. "And they have realized that and they are coming out of the back door. That's all there is. As a result of that, I don't think it will happen."

This is not the way supposed champions should operate. If Pavlik is indeed injured, then fine. If after a reasonable recovery period he is ready to honor his contract to fight Williams, OK. But if this injury is used to back out of the title fight altogether because they're having second thoughts about the matchup, that's just unsporting.

Frankly, it's downright cowardly.

"They've got this guy built to be the best out there," said Peterson. "Coming back to his weight class he's supposed to be so devastating."

If so, then prove it. Get the finger fixed and then back it up in the ring against an opponent ready and willing to take on all comers.

This has been a recurring problem for Williams, who was essentially forced out of his preferred welterweight division because the other champions were too afraid of his freakish skills to risk fighting him. They complained that Williams was too big to be a welterweight, but the scales that read 147 pounds every time he stepped on them didn't lie.

"It's not a size division, it's a weight division," said Peterson.

So now Williams has moved up to fight bigger champions and they seem to be afraid of him, too.

"Paul has really established himself in really a short period of time and he has become the most feared fighter in the world," Goossen said. "That's really something that's frustrating to the other fighters. As you can see, the big fights will be made. They may be tough to be made and a lot of obstacles to be made because they're very reluctant to get in the ring with him. But on the other hand, it really hasn't stopped us from achieving what our dreams are."

Now Williams is stuck with a date (Oct. 3) and a TV deal (HBO) but nobody to dance with. This now takes priority over Pavlik.

"We love the fight which is one of the reason's why we made it," Goossen said of Pavlik. "If it's feasible to move forward and reschedule it after a rehabilitation period, great. On the other hand, our immediate goal is to get Paul back into the ring as soon as possible."

The most promising talks right now are with Bernard Hopkins, the former light heavyweight champion whose last fight was a lopsided decision at 170 pounds over Pavlik last October. The 44-year-old Hopkins reigned for 10 years as the undisputed middleweight champion, with a record 20 titles defenses, before moving up in weight.

The sticking point is in which weight class to fight. Hopkins wants to do it at 170 pounds, but Williams is only willing to come up to 165.

"We're really overdoing it consenting to 165 pounds," Peterson said. "For him to get there he just has to come down five pounds. But we have to come up 16 pounds. But we're willing to meet him there."

Hopefully somebody is willing to meet Williams in the ring. It doesn't say much for the sport if nobody steps up.

Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.