Carl Truth Williams a very good boxer

Carl Williams was a fighter who got off to a late start. He grew up in New Jersey, and started working out at a gym down the railroad tracks from where he lived with his Grandmother. He began punching a bag as a teenager just out of shear frustration. He compiled a pretty decent amateur record, and turned pro around 1983. With 11 pro fights under his belt, Williams trainer brought him down to the Catskills, where a young Tyson was training. Williams, being the much larger, older, and experienced of the two, gave a young Tyson a bit a of a boxing lesson from what I recall hearing in the pre-fight commentary of there championship fight years later.

Williams had what some experts called one of the greatest left jabs of all time. He also had a right hand that was more than servicable. Truth's biggest weakness, was getting belted with the left hand. In the 10 or so times that he was floored in his career, almost all of them were caused by left hooks.

Another problem was that Williams had the tendency to go on long periods of inactivity. Following the Tyson loss in July of 1989, he was supposed to fight Tyrell Biggs in January of 1990. The card consisted of Witherspoon-Sims and Williams-Biggs for the USBA title. Carl pulled out on short notice with an alledged back injury, and Biggs wound up fighting Ossie Ocasio. In July of 1990, Carl finally got off a fight after a year of being off. He faced 16-1 prospect Melton Bowen who if I recall, was a shorter stocky type puncher, who had some resemblances to Mike Tyson. Williams started off slow, but decked Bowen with a right in the 5th round to score a knockout. I saw some of Carl's later fights against men like Marshal Tillman, Jerry Jones and Tommy Morrison. He was competitive in those fights, but clearly passed his prime, and had diminished to fighting mediocre comp. Williams was a good boxer with potential, but had very few wins over rated opposition. An aging Berbick may well have been his biggest feat.

 

Carl had nice boxing ability, but a weak chin.

 

I never saw the Holmes fight in its entirety. I have seen clips of it though, and I can remember Holmes holding up his arms in victory, revealing one hell of a huge swollen eye. My guess is Larry took a pretty good pounding in that fight, by how his face looked. Of course we have to consider that he was on the tale end of his reign. Carl had some good moments, but I don't know if he deserved to get a second shot at the title. In 1986, he was dusted pretty badly by a declining Weaver who was coming off some pretty tough losses himself. Over the next 3 years leading up to the Tyson fight, Carl only fought maybe 4 or 5 times beating men like Bert Cooper and a slipping Trevor Berbick. Based on what I remember, the IBF had Williams ranked #1 in July of 1989. I can also remember thinking how generous it was of them to give him such a high rating. Following the first round Ko ( by a left hand of course) Williams stayed idle for almost a year, and in the summer of 1990, exactly one year after being dusted in 93 seconds, the IBF still had Willliams at #3. This was starting to get a bit fishy.

 

Agree.
Still not contender material.

 

I had Holmes by a point or two. I personally think a draw would be the most extreme we could give Williams, and Holmes would retain anyway.

 

Carl had good talent and ability, but just never developed it.In some ways, he was like a heavyweight Howard Davis Jr.However, it the right scenario, I could see him beating a Thomas or Tubbs, he was that good.

 

He had a weak chin and limited power.

His jab was pretty good. His style was very similar to Holmes.

 

Agree.

 

Really similar 2 Holmes minus d elbows , thumbs and with less clinches .
Williams stopped Bert Cooper , Jese Ferguson , David Jaco (listed 6'6") , 1st 2 stop Mike Rouse (listed 6'7") , outpointed Tillis (but most probably deserved 2 lose that fight) , Berbick .
Williams also fought Holmes (I watched it entirely at least twice , and Holmes did not win that fight) , Witherspoon (lost a split decision over 12 , I really want 2c and judge 4 myself , but like many of his fights , I can't get this fight) .
Williams is on par with d titlists of his era .

 

Williams was very good fighter with very good skills but he had a weakness against a left hook which lets face it a lot of tall fighter who use a jab do, look at Ali vs Frazier, but this is why he looked good against Holmes but looks bad against a fighter like Morrison.
A very good fighter and superior to many of todays fighters except the Klitschkos.

 

A good fighter, but not a great one, and not really championship material.

You can blame inexperience for him being unable to eke past possibly the worst Holmes who ever defended his title, but he never accomplished much of anything beyond that, to be honest.

Always found a way to get belted in a majority of his big fights and situations.

Good, solid guy, a winner, but just didn't have that championship gear.

 

This:happy

 

I met Carl and he was a really nice guy ... he said to me that Holmes deserved the decision and that he learned a ton in the fight ... his weakness was his chin ... it was simply not concrete ...