Did Williams getting shot in the abdomen affect him at all?

It might be tough convincing fighters they need to be shot to prove their greatness.

Stanley Ketchel was shot by a .22 and he was never the same afterwards.

 

Monzon was shot by a .22 from memory. Hugely different to poor old Cleveland but not something i'd welcome lol

 

Williams was never the same after being gutshot...and all that goes with it. The Houston Post and Houston Chronicle in that time frame, had some articles on Williams' condition and his so-called "comeback".

 

Ok folks, I’ve voted yes.

 

One of his wives/girlfriends shot him with a little purse pistol or something?

 

Pretty sure he had an accident cleaning a .22 as well.

 

You'd imagine Monzon would have preferred something slightly more potent and imposing than a 22., if he was going to choose to buy a gun for himself at all...

 

it didn't harm him until he fought Ali apparently

 

Williams had a thin resume at the elite level, but I think that he is better than you are making him out to be.

He fought the #2 rated Eddie Machen to a draw, and it seems to have been pretty much a draw.

His record against Terrell was a win and an SD loss.

In Terrel's next fight he would dominate the #7 ranked Zora Folley.

The impression that I get, is that he was roughly in the same category was Machen and Terrell head to head, before he took the bullet.

Not as good as people at the time made him out to be, but probably still too much for those guys.

 

He may have already cleaned the 357 mag

 

Good point, Monzon probably had his big piece/shiny 357 show piece all cleaned and put away and managed to end up bleeding all over the house before rushing to the hospital because he messed up cleaning his chicks 22/squirrel round gun...

 

yes this is a good result against a #2 rated guy. He’s equal to the third best man in the world going by that.

yes so he’s 1-1 with Terrell and Terrell did later prove to be the worlds second best HW. The next best win Williams has is Billy Daniels who he did not knockout even though Karl mildenberger did.

yes beating Foley was a landmark win for Terrell. Losing to Williams proved to have been the turning point for him. Ernie was definitely a better fighter after losing to Williams than he ever was before. Terrell best wins are all on the other side of that loss to Williams.

yes Williams was definitely Terrell and Machen level as they stood in 1962-1963. So let’s assess how Terrell and Machen would have been regarded at that time. Machen had been a gatekeeper since 1957 and had lost to LH Harold Johnson just the previous year. Maybe people were beginning to wonder Machen had already gone as far as he would go. Perhaps the next man to beat him convincingly might be considered the future of the division but that was not Williams. He only drew with him. And of course the next year Machen loses to former champion Floyd Patterson anyway. So it’s like saying Williams matched the guy who had found his level just outside of championship fare.

Terrell? Again, beating him convincingly rather than losing by SD would have made Williams out to be something as well. I tend to think we should only look at these results in the way we look at other highly rated guys who are taken close by other contenders.

well the thing is Terrell had a close fight with Chuvalo after he closely beat Williams. Does this make Chuvalo on the level with Williams too?. After the shooting Williams fought Chuvalo and I think that fight may have panned out the way it might have before the shooting. It was a very entertaining fight, Chuvalo winnning But Williams did well. Not bad against a guy who beat Quarry. If Williams lost to Chuvalo before the shooting it would not have been that surprising. Then Williams beats Gullick and Terry Daniels. On paper these are not that far behind the win over Billy Daniels.

I don’t see enough form from Williams even before the shooting that convinces me he could ever have beaten Chuvalo, Cleroux, Foster and Al Jones. I can see Machen and Terrell beating some of them but Williams did not prove to be better than Machen or Terrell anyway.

 

You know, there's a modern fighter who came along a few years ago called Vernon Parris. Had an exciting fight on TV against another prospect, got beat up by an old Zab Judah, and then basically disappeared. I recall part of his past being that he had been shot several times due to gang violence/involvement. But he was never very good to begin with so how does this figure into the being shot/greatness equation?!?!

 

Jeff Simms was shot seven times. He carried bullets in him throughout his entire career. I’m not sure if any were point blank in the abdomen though.

 

Man, what's with the coming from the hood, being shot several times, and then making it big but blowing it all?

Looking at you, 50 cent and Jeff Simms.