http://www.boxing.com/towering_and_glowering.html Here is an article on Roy 'Tiger' Williams. It's a good article and doesn't try to make Williams out to be a black murderers row type of fighter, although it should have mentioned more of his faults. I was interestd in reading this because of how some of these message boards have sort of created something like a groundswell out of Tiger Williams. i don't want to demean him, but when I saw some of the things written about him in recent years, I was staring at the screen yelling, 'What?!' When Roy was knocking about I knew every contender, every hot prospect, every not-so-hot prospect and every gym whisper and believe me, Roy Williams was on no ones radar. He was strictly a gym fighter, who had 3 great chances to break into the big time and he blew it against Richard Dunn, Earnie Shavers and Larry Holmes. And I'm really giving ground on the Dunn fight, because Dunn was really only a half-way decent fighter at that time trying to fight for the british title. That fight alone should be the gauge on the Tiger Williams talent meter. Dunn was never sturdy of chin and he apparently boxed Williams ears off. I don't know why Roy retired when he did, but funny enough, I always thought one of his best wins was at the end of his career against a very good prospect named Walter Moore, whom I had been following. Anyways, that's my take on Roy. Anyone have a dissenting view, feel free.
Roy Williams may give a bit of a glimpse of how some of the bigger heavyweight contenders of today would've done in his time.
I often hear many things about Roy and the Shavers fight was probably his best near win, Earnie got tired and hit but came back. I think the fact that Roy could not KO Richard Dunn says much and in fact lost to Dunn. He had size and was not a bad fighter but IMO Quarry would have stopped him just to give a measurement
The only thing that I remember about Dunn was how incredibly pathetic he looked against Ali. Getting knocked down 5 times by Ali in 1976 is one of boxing's all-time great accomplishments.
Funny, just watched it again, the fight was even after 3 rounds. Things look a lot different when you are 10.
Who knows what makes some guys tick. Larry Holmes tells some very definitive stories on Williams going to war w a Ali in training camp over two days over a payment dispute and fighting him tooth and nail. Maybe he was a Mcall type head case. Losing to Dunn is pretty weak.
