Educate me: Cleveland “BigCat” Williams

Greatest fighter who ever lived.

 

Said what I said.

 

Overrated, swag and other Liston paroles are boosting him and hype about him just because they want people to think Liston fought someone good but he didn't.

Cleveland never beat anyone good, he was knocked out by Bob Satterfield, a lhw who was beaten by Jake Lamotta who was a MW.

He didn't beat anyone descent or atleast good, he couldn't even beat George Chuvalo.

His only good win was against Terrel but Terrel beat him in rematch.

He's more overrated than Ron Lyle who atleast beat Shavers, Bugner, Bonavena, Ellis, Peralta, Buster Mathis etc.

 

He was a real big puncher, but real inconsistent. Consider him a level lower than Earnie Shavers.

 

I would equate Williams to someone like Ron Lyle, in both good & bad ways.

Like Lyle, they both had reputations as fearsome punchers, but also like Lyle, they usually failed to KO the elite fighters of their day & are probably better remembered today for fights they lost than won.

Williams was tall for a HW of his day & had a fast & powerful left hook that he could throw in rapid fire succession from a variety of angles. The remainder of his attributes were somewhat limited though. His best win was probably a stoppage of an up-n-coming Ernie Terrell, but he failed to replicate that feat in a rematch vs. a more experienced Terrell, losing a close, perhaps debatable SD.

 

Pretty much this … to me Williams is “what might have happened in a different time and place.”

 

Cleveland Woods was. Not Williams

 

Good summation. He also managed a draw with Machen, before Machen started to slide I think.

 

He fought like a large feline.

 

The only man who was nearly as good as Galento

 

I'd say he was an immensely physically gifted fighter who lacked the really good boxing brain which might have made him truly special. He had great hitting power, excellent hand speed, solid chin, stamina and technique, BUT he would often not follow up decisively when he had a man hurt, against a retreating opponent he would just stalk them rather than cutting them off and cornering them, and he could be flustered by fast combination punching.

He was still one of the best of his day, though. It shows how consistently good he was in his prime that to talk him down people have to harp on about a loss to Satterfield when he was a 20 year old prospect who stepped in to fight on 2 days' notice.

 

Useless trivia but some folks will know why I am saying this … his reach was only
3 centimeters shorter than Wlad K’s.