Sherman Alexander "The Caribbean Tank" Williams

Returning tonight, headlining a card in Nassau in continuation of a comeback he began eleven months ago. The opponent is still TBA for Tank, who is also promoting the show...but then again every A-side on the card - including half a dozen local Bahamians in their professional debuts - has theirs listed as TBA, so either Williams or the Nassau commission probably just failed to notify external agencies like BoxRec after the weigh-in yesterday.

The now 46 year old is on a 4-0 (3) run since a UD loss to Christian Hammer in 2015. His last "meaningful" victory came in 2012 when he pounded out a MD over Chauncy "The Panda" Welliver, the notoriously obese former perennial fringe contender (turned, apparently, emcee/host & commentator for boxing cards in Gurgaon, India ).

His career pinnacle in truth was very nearly scoring a knockout against the badly faded Evander Holyfield on a low-rent PPV in 2011. Holyfield was getting hurt with increasing and escalating regularity, and was bailed out by referee David Johnson after shrewdly complaining of a tiny nothing cut from a glancing headbutt, and escaped with the ordeal tossed out as recorded in posterity under "No Contest".

Tank, robbed of that one moment of "glory" (which granted would have meant nothing given Evander's state of deterioration by that point, but on principle he was robbed of a KO win over a big name on his record and the paydays that would have opened up for him) is otherwise known as being among the grittiest and toughest heavyweight journeymen of the last couple of decades, and not quite an explosive puncher but heavy-handed enough to prove as truth serum in wars of attrition with any unexposed glass cannons...sort of a proto-Carlos Takam. He fought a who's-who in the division and yet his only stoppage loss to date - in what tonight will be 60 contests - was a battered-on-his-feet TKO against then 14-0 prospect Robert C. Davis, Jr. in '99, just 23 months after debuting. IB funfact: Davis, a veteran of the actual early 1990's gulf war, is the boxer from whom Timothy Bradley Jr. stole the "Desert Storm" moniker. (Bradley hadn't yet undergone puberty when the real-life Desert Storm campaign ended)

For both of the above reasons he will always be a sentimental favorite of mine, whoever stands in the other corner. Even if TBA ends up being a hobo.

WAR TANK!

 

I just noticed/had completely forgotten - in his match directly preceding the screwjob against the Real Deal (having bought that abysmal PPV, the outrage in the main event following a horrendous undercard left me one very dissatisfied customer ), Tank had gone to Germany and been arguably robbed of at least a draw against then little known 12-0 super heavyweight Manuel Charr:

https://www.boxingnews24.com/2009/10/charr-defeats-williams/amp/

That young "Diamond Boy" stood 4½” taller and in his prime at 25 was a dozen years Williams' junior but still couldn't defeat a bloated Tank (at his 3rd career highest weight of 264½lbs) clearly ought to have been a

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red flag. I still can't believe how many people hyped Charr in earnest (and not just Ali Raymi parody style)

 

Rumble, young man, rumble!

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Yep, I remember.

Speaking of 90's heavies that fought Parker, it also struck me that a Williams vs. Frans Botha fight would've been pretty fun. Williams has probably less power but a much better chin, and the White Buffalo was a relative glass cannon...and both had mixed at similarly high levels over roughly the same time span.

 

I'm honestly awaiting news on this card with more butterflies than any of this evening's major televised results..

 

...and now, we wait.

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I heard a rumor the opponent was Argentinian glass cannon Orlando Antonio "El Nocaut" Farías Pérez, so at least Tank has the good sense to be taking on guys his own age (Farías is 45)