Neither of which matters much to The Punisher

Fights with welterweight sluggers Shane Mosley and Josh Clottey were talked about, but ultimately never came to fruition.Enter WBC jr. middleweight king Sergio Martinez (44-1-2,24 KOs) of Argentina.Coming off of an impressive victory over Alex Bunema, followed by a highly controversial draw with Kermit Cintron, both of which were televised on HBO, Martinez was ready to get back in the spotlight and took the fight on just a months notice.Williams, who often draws comparisons to Henry Armstrong for his ability to compete in multiple weight classes, will not drop down in weight to vie for Martinez's junior middleweight crown, and will instead face him in a middleweight bout.It isn't as glamorous as fighting for the World Middleweight Championship, but it's a stiff test nonetheless.Any fighter across the ring from Martinez is in for a rough night. Factor in that Williams spent several months preparing for a much different fighter in Pavlik and it's clear that "The Punisher" faces a very difficult task on Saturday night.In short, it's not quite the high-profile fight he had anticipated, and it could be argued that Martinez presents more of a conundrum to Williams than Pavlik would have.Neither of which matters much to "The Punisher." He'll see his share of high-profile fights and he's endured arduous tasks throughout his career.He's just glad the wait is over.Questions and comments can be sent to . The 0-18 New Jersey Nets finally ended their record-setting worst start to a season Friday nightagainst theBobcats under new head coach Kiki Vandeweghe.The fans can finally take a deep breath and relax for a night, but for the Nets it's back to work, focusing on winning their next battleon Sunday afternoon against the Knicks.The Bobcats had 18 turnovers inFriday night's game at theIzod Center and a few key turnovers at the end. The Nets showed a new kind of intensity that has not been seen all season; however, let's not get too excited.The Nets'schedule does not get easy and despite of them being "in" most of the games this season, they need to learn how to finish them.The Nets may be having a horrible start to the season, but let's look to what their goal was this season, rebuilding for the future and developing young players.T-Will has had a good start to his rookie season; he just needs to be a little smarter in when knowing to shoot and drive the lane.Courtney Lee, in his second year,hasn't seen his shot drop much, but it will come around like we all saw in the win on Saturday night. Brook Lopez and CDR get betterevery game and are turning into future All-Stars.The Nets young players are developing, they snapped their 18-game losing streak and worst start in NBA history.The big question is can they win another Or will another losing streak developI guess we'll find out Sunday afternoon at New York how the Nets react to their first win, and if they'll continue to bring thesameintensity everyone saw in Friday nights win over the Bobcats.. With the Winter Meetings less than 48 hours away, the San Diego Padres will be looking to add a right handed bat as well as pitching depth. Whether that comes by free agency or by trade is yet to be seen, but here are a few names that are being talked about.First off, gotta give credit to the Padres for doing something they needed to do in adding legendary announcer and San Diego resident Dick Enberg to their television broadcast booth.Enberg will join long-time Padres' color commentator Mark Grant to cover at least 130 Padre games this season, with the other 20-30 games being done by second-year man Mark Neely.Now that that's out of the way, let's get to a few of the names being bantered about.With Henry Blanco close to a deal with the Mets, the Padres will turn elsewhere to try and find a veteran catcher for the 2010 season.

An interesting name that the Padres' could look at is 29-year-old left-hander Noah Lowry.The former Giants' pitcher is coming off of forearm surgery in March 2008, as well as surgery in May to remove a rib to help with his thoracic outlet syndrome. Despite the surgeries, Lowry's agent is telling teams that his client is completely healthy.Not only are the Padres interested, but according to ESPN's Jerry Crasnick , the Pirates, Rockies, Dodgers, A's, Mariners, and Reds are also interested. It could be an interesting race to see who lands him.MLB 's Corey Block has an article out talking about the team's needs that they could possibly fill during the winter meetings.In that article, Brock mentions the possibility that the team could trade third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff and slide Chase Headley into his natural position.Doing that would allow the team to give more playing time to 6'6", 285 pound Kyle Blanks. Having him in the lineup at the same time with All-Star first baseman Adrian Gonzalez definitely gives this team more power.As expected, the Padres did not offer outfielder Brian Giles arbitration meaning his days as a Padre have officially come to a close. There's been no talk as to where the long- time Padre and Pirate will end up, but I doubt Giles' playing days are done.There will be many more rumors flying as the Winter Meetings approach, this coming Monday Dec.

7.We'll see if the Padres will be buyers or choose to not show their hand just yet, and wait until Spring training gets closer before they really start to make their moves.. This weekend the bowl picture will be much clearer as conferences host championships. Last night, Oregon captured the Pac-10 title against Oregon St and will meet Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. Here is a quick preview of each conference championship and a Heisman watch: SECIn the SEC Championship game, the Florida Gators play the Alabama Crimson Tide at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Both of these teams are very good and are experienced on offense and defense. Tim Tebow leads the Gators as they hope to clinch a spot in the national championship game. Riley Cooper and Aaron Hernandez are the leading receivers with 12 touchdowns combined.