The last time we saw Paul “The Punisher” Williams it wasn’t a pretty sight.

He’d come face-to-face with what his longtime trainer and mentor, George Peterson, calls “The Light Switch” and been knocked down and out.

Like most area boxing fans, I was a bit stunned as I watched Williams smashed with an overhand left by Sergio Martinez that crumpled the Aiken native and North Augusta resident face-first into the mat in what was unquestionably the Knockout of the Year.

“It’s like your body short circuits,” Peterson said of the punch. “And every boxer has that spot where if you get hit there it just shuts your nervous system down and that’s what happened to Paul. It short-circuits your body and that’s it. It’s like a stun gun.”

But it was what followed in the days and weeks after the fight that left me more amazed, as fight writers and boxing scribes leapt onto the Martinez wagon like they were wearing the newest Air Jordan’s, all while dismissing Williams’ career as one that’s suddenly finished.

I understand some of the logic, but I beg to differ.

Williams has put together a stellar boxing career (39-2, 27 Knockouts) with numerous appearances on the prime cable networks against some of the biggest names in the sport. And prior to the recent loss to Martinez, he’d only been beaten once (by Carlos Quintana), and had avenged that loss in dominant fashion. So now all of the sudden he’s done?

If so, it’s news to Peterson.

“Well, 10 minutes after the event took place he was ready to go again had the situation presented itself,” he said last week. “(Paul) has been out there so long and been so devastating and the media just didn’t care for him. He hadn’t been one of (the media’s) favorites. This is not over with. But we’ll be back. They said the same thing when Paul lost to (Carlos Quintana) … he didn’t have enough amateur fights and all that. They had a field day. And when Paul came back and stopped him he was better than ever. We just see this as a stepping stone.”

Which leads to an inevitable comparison of circumstances – if Williams comes back “better than ever” again, how great will that “Punisher” be? Besides, had he not been caught with the Martinez left, it certainly appeared the fight was headed down the exact same fiercely competitive road as the first encounter between the two boxers – a fight Williams won, a fact many people in the boxing community seem to have forgotten following the big punch.

Williams’ promoter, Dan Goossen of Goossen-Tutor Promotions, says there have been plenty of champions who have been caught with a similar “one and done” punch, and who also went on to Hall-of-Fame Careers.

“History has shown us that there are those one-in-a-million shots that take out the best of champions,” said Goossen. “Oliver McCall did it to Lennox Lewis and Tommy Hearns did it to Roberto Duran and on and on. It happens to the best of them. And those champions were hit with it and came back stronger than ever. And in Paul’s case, the recent beating (Antonio) Margarito took from Manny (Pacquiao) did much more damage than a shot like this did to Paul. He was able to overcome it, and minutes later he was doing interviews.”

Goossen is right, in that one loss – even a devastating loss as this was – does not a career break. I’ve been amazed at how quickly Sergio Martinez has risen through the pound-for-pound rankings in such a short time. But then, he seems to be an agreeable young man who works hard, makes great fights. And those are the fighters we love.

But Williams is all of those things too, something Goossen doesn’t want anyone to forget while congratulating Martinez for his accomplishment.

“It’s only natural that people will be trumpeting it as a great victory and can’t deprive them of that,” Goossen said. “Right now the key is to get (Williams) back into the ring and to let the naysayers see the effect it had, or didn’t have, on him”

Both Peterson and Goossen said they will look to line up a bout for Williams as soon as is feasible in 2011, leaving open the possibility of a third fight in the future.

“First of all, (Martinez) was more surprised than everybody else was, but that happens in boxing,” said Peterson. “But we’re not making any excuses we’re saying that was his night and we’ll be back. It’s a step back, but it’s a step back until we can get him in the ring again. Nobody is going to want to fight (Martinez) now so (a third fight) could happen. We know our day will come again. But I’m encouraging him to do two more fights and then forget about it because he doesn’t have to do this, he’s financially set. He doesn’t have to throw another punch if he doesn’t want to.”

But we know that he will, and I for one will look forward to seeing the version of “The Punisher” that emerges from this latest setback.

Both Peterson and Goossen remain confident.

“If the fight goes past four rounds then (Paul) stops (Martinez),” Peterson said. “He fought him 12 rounds last time and (Martinez) could hardly stand up afterwards.”

“(People) would be incorrect to (count Williams out),” adds Goossen.