Wales boasts an impressive history in the world of boxing for a nation of its size with champions such as Joe Calzaghe, Jimmy Wilde and Steve Robinson proudly representing their nation on the world stage and dazzling under the bright lights in numerous world title contests. Now, one of Wales’ more recent contenders has decided to call an end to his career, hanging up the gloves aged just 32-years-old.
Liam Williams made the switch to the professional ranks off of the bank of a stellar amateur career and saw himself challenging for the British super-welterweight title in just his 14th professional contest.
The Clydach-born 154lber obliged with a second-round knockout of Kris Carslaw before scoring another knockout win against Gary Cocoran and seemed on course to challenge for world honours in the near future after he halted Gabor Gorbics to add the European title to his collection.
However, back-to-back wars with Liam Smith resulted in successive defeats for Williams, the first of which came as a result of a severe eye injury whilst he was ahead on the cards, ending his dreams of a world title shot at super-welterweight.
Instead, ‘The Machine’ opted to move up to the middleweight division and became a two-weight British champion when he knocked out Mark Heffron for the vacant Lonsdale Belt.
Once again, Williams progressed beyond the domestic level after making one defence but this time he added three further wins to extend his knockout streak to seven consecutive stoppages, positioning him for his long-awaited world title challenge.
Unfortunately for Williams, he was unable the dethrone the undefeated Demetrius Andrade for the WBO middleweight title but he returned home to a hero’s welcome before jumping into a grudge match showdown against Chris Eubank Jr. in 2022.
A nightmare start for the Welshman was enough for Eubank to cruise to a unanimous-decision win but Williams still felt he had plenty in the tank to continue in the division.
Williams trumped Nizar Trimech and Florin Cardos in respective second and first-round victories to rebuild his momentum but was then tasked with highly-rated Hamzah Sheeraz at the beginning of this year, who dominated Williams and handed him a first-round defeat of his own – that being the first time Williams had ever been truly stopped by an opponent during his career.
Today it has been confirmed that Williams has decided to walk away from the sport amid concerns over his remaining ability and his health, making the wise decision to put his family first now that a world title appears to be out of his reach, he told the BBC.
“I trust the people around me and when they are telling you it’s over, you have to listen. It was very hard to hear.
“I’d had some problems with concussions. I had three or four in 18 months.
“I don’t want to box just for money and get a hit to the head you can never come back from.
“I’ve got a lovely family, a lovely partner, if I can’t enjoy my life with them because of damage to my brain, what would it be for?”
“Heavy sparring, heavy hits, my resistance to punches is not as good and the risk are just too great, some hits you can’t come back from.”
“Because of concussions I’ve had to retire,”
Everyone at Boxing Social would like to congratulate Liam Williams on an outstanding professional career and wish him all the best with whatever comes next.
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