“I’m going for the Giants," WBO welterweight champion Paul Williams told Fightnews.com before Sunday's Super Bowl shocker. "If you are gambling, you want to choose the underdog, those are the better odds.”

You can hardly imagine “The Punisher” ever being the underdog and the 26-year old Williams is not a gambling man inside or outside of the ring either. Instead, he relies on his two fisted attack as well as his southpaw stance, 6’3” frame, 82 inch reach and relentless pressure to assemble his impressive 33-0, 24KO ledger in addition to the WBO welterweight strap that he won over Antonio Margarito in July ’07.

Williams was able to dispute for the title when Margarito decided to honor his mandatory challenge according to the WBO instead of chasing after a big money fight against current WBA kingpin Miguel Cotto and subsequently losing the belt outside the ring. “It showed a lot of heart. I don’t know what his promoter was talking about but Margarito decided he didn’t want to lose his title that way and for that I respect him,” Williams states. “For that reason alone, I think he definitely deserves a rematch and I will gladly give it to him. But up to this point, they haven’t asked.”

In the months following his successful title challenge, Williams withdrew from the boxing spotlight “that’s me. I like to do my talking inside the ring. That’s my free time from the boxing world.”

Originally slated to meet IBF champion Kermit Cintron in the ring on February 9thin Puerto Rico, those plans fell through when Cintron hurt his hand in his bout versus Jesse Feliciano in late Nov., which left Williams without an opponent for his HBO date. “His hand injury looked suspect but if that is the reason they are giving, that is the reason I have to believe, but it just seemed like they didn’t want to get in the ring,” Williams concludes.

In Cintron’s stead, Carlos Quintana (24-1, 19KO) has agreed to challenge Williams for the title.

Ironically Williams has decided to prepare for the bout in Quintana’s backyard of Puerto Rico for his title defense “We just fell in love with the island. We get a lot of love out here and it’s away from the States and the distractions of the States. We are able to focus better and get away from the distractions of the city. It just works best for us. We just fell in love with the island. As far as his preparation “it’s the same Williams. We just see what kind of style the opponent brings and then we adjust. As long as I get in my rhythm and I don’t see Quintana’s southpaw style posing any problems. There is no guy that can cause me any problem with their style.”

Quintana is best known for welcoming Miguel Cotto to the welterweight division in December of ’06. Cotto returned the favor by promptly introducing Quintana to the canvas in the 5th with a ruthless array of punishment to both the body and head and also handing Quintana with his only defeat. Since then, Quintana stopped unknown Christopher Henry in a 4th round TKO in September of last year.

Is Williams worried about the criticism he might receive because of the pedigree of his first title defense? “I don’t think so. Quintana is a good fighter. His only loss came in a championship fight. I just need to stay in my rhythm and do what I do best and not worry about that.”

But it is obvious that in between the polite yes sir’s from the Augusta, Georgia native that he is anxious to fight the big names of the talent rich welterweight division. “We’ll take anybody. Cotto, Mayweather, Margarito, it all depends on my team, Goosen, Al Haymon and my trainer. It’s going to get to the point were the fans, the writers; the media is eventually going to ask for these fights. They are going to see that I am red hot and then there will be no need to wait.”

But how long is Paul willing to wait? Forget his skill and his style of constant punching for the entire round but just his sheer advantage in size over the top fighters in the division such as Mosley, Cotto and Mayweather all of which hover around the 5”7-5”8’ range makes it a tough call of why any of them would get in between the ropes with Williams. “If you are a fighter, you fight anybody despite of size or style. That is what you have to do to prove that you are the best,” Williams continues “I’m going to stay in the division as long as my body can take it but I’m not going to kill myself. Also if there is no point financially then I am going to have to move up and punish another division.”

As for the future, Williams has no preference in taking on the winner of Cintron-Margarito II. Although he has his pick “Margarito is a gutsy fighter. I have been in the ring with him and never with Cintron and Margarito brings a lot of pressure, he throws a lot of punches. He has already beaten Cintron once and that puts a lot in his mind. Margarito’s confidence is sky high.”