Can anybody tell me what the deal was with this guy? As a kid I remember reading about him once or twice in my boxing magazines (I seem to recall he was touted as a first-rate cruiserweight who was likely to move up and become a serious prospect at heavyweight) and maybe a couple times a year I run across a brief reference to him as some kind of unfulfilled phenom. I'm quite certain that some or other first-tier 90's heavyweight said in an interview that Williams was one of the hardest punchers he ever sparred with (I think maybe it was McCall). And yet when I look at his record, by far the three most recognizable names (to me) on his resume are Larry Donald, Henry Akinwande and Brian Nielsen. So what happened? What exactly drew this early attention, and why did he never go anywhere? Was he considered to be badly exposed by Akinwande and Neilsen?
I saw Williams fight a few times and yes he could punch like hell. A really good fighter, but just couldn't get over the hump so to speak as a top ten contender. Sam Peter knocked him cold in the second round, a chilling ko. I think he's a trainer now. He was a part of that Contender tv series several years ago. I liked him because he had a fan friendly style.
He was too small to make it as a top HW in the modern era. He should have stuck to CW. He spent a lot of his career being a sparring partner for paid work.
Yeah, too small and not defensive enough with his size. He ended up in MMA, won a few, lost a few. Sounds pretty punchy now.
"Sam Peter knocked him cold in the second round, a chilling ko." I guess I should have perused boxrec more closely. (I briefly skimmed from the bottom up. Sam Peter was one of his last fights and would be by far the biggest name on his resume.) But whatever Williams' shortcomings, I seriously doubt size was primary among them. He was certainly a larger man than James Toney or Chris Byrd. Sam Peter is a much smaller man than (say) George Godfrey or Jose Santa, and in much worse shape than either of those men in his prime. It's not clear that he would even have significantly outweighed Williams without that spare tire, and would certainly be no more than 225 in top shape.
I don't think it was really too much a case of size. He was the same size as Evander Holyfield approximately. Lennox Lewis used him as a sparring partner to get ready for Holyfield in fact.
Yeah worth looking up on youtube Mcvey..More MMA than boxing though lol..He tripped Lewis to the canvas, is that the one ?? Got really heated
Looked in great shape and as another poster said fan friendly style with a good personality. His chin let him down he was unable to take a decent punch, (not in the Herbie Hide league who went down and was KOed when no punch landed) If he could have done he would have gone a lot further than he did