BoxRec

how highly regarded was williams, in his light middleweight prime - did he ever reach the world tp 10 in either boxing monthly or ring mag?

what were his best fights?

re all the domestic bouts that did not happen, should history not be so hard on him, given he fought sergio martinez twice? given how well martinez has done of recent.

Too inactive. One of the great shames of recent years is that the fight with Wayne Alexander never happened with both being in their primes at the same time and both of them just seeming to go months of not fighting anyone, never could rate one over the other but at least Wayne got his chance to go in there with Simon.

There was always a thought that Williams could have troubled the best in the world and looked great beating that Aussie whose name I can't remember, Shannon Taylor?

He was a quality fighter when he was on with the type of technique and skills that not to many British fighters have. Inactivity, injuries and illness killed his career though. Everytime he took one step forwards he would take two backwards.

His overall demeanour made/make people overrate him. He came across as real gentleman, always had a big smile on his face and respect for his opponents plus his dayjob in his early days (delivering meals to the elderly) clouded peoples views of him imo

I liked him as a fighter though, but like to judge peoples class by who they fought and beat and his record doesnt stand up to scrutiny. His claim to fame was bashing upo a guy 1 round quicker than Mosley did. I guess you could add flooring S Martinez twice as well. Thats about it !

He was good fighter and someone I used to study as a youth.. I always thought he under achivied but I feel circumstances kept him back which is a terrible shame, I look at how far someone like say Ricardo Mayorga has got and it baffles me that someone with far better ability than him in Williams didn't go halfas far BUT I suppose when you have that 1 punch power you can go a veryn long way... :(

I hope Williams earned enough to have a decent income from his winnings..A property or something along them lines?? .

Good boxer, but around at a time when the Light Middleweight devision was loaded with talent. I don't think he ever got top ten status - for the most part Boxing Monthly had Steve Roberts at #1 at Light Middle and he never made the top ten.

I don't think he would have made it to world class, not at that time. I don't think he would have beaten any of the top ten at the time.

Good fighter - Williams vs Stone was the match I wanted to see.

He would have smashed Steve Roberts to pieces though Stu

Lenny wrote:He would have smashed Steve Roberts to pieces though Stu

I agree, just stating how boxing monthly ranked him. Not saying the writers of boxing monthly wouldn't have tipped Williams also. Just don't think any of those Light Middles made the top ten in their rankings.

stujones wrote:

Lenny wrote:He would have smashed Steve Roberts to pieces though Stu

I agree, just stating how boxing monthly ranked him. Not saying the writers of boxing monthly wouldn't have tipped Williams also. Just don't think any of those Light Middles made the top ten in their rankings.

Some good points there mate, The fight to watch would have been him and Stone without doubt, I think he could have held his own with the bottom half of the top 10 though..

stujones wrote:

Lenny wrote:He would have smashed Steve Roberts to pieces though Stu

I agree, just stating how boxing monthly ranked him. Not saying the writers of boxing monthly wouldn't have tipped Williams also. Just don't think any of those Light Middles made the top ten in their rankings.

I think Ring had Roberts at around #7 or #8 for a time when he was still unbeaten but the British mags always took a bit more sensible view.

During that era I think the UK had Williams, Alexander, Roberts & Takaloo who were all regarded as possible top 20 light-middles plus Michael Jones who was floating about unbeaten for some time, Farnell rated by quite a few people until Tak flattened him, Stone came back to the UK at the weight and Moore was starting to reestablish himself towards the end after his loss to Dixon. I think perhaps the lot were slight overrated partially due to the belief that seen as there were so many of them at least one of them must be genuinely world class and partly by the fact none of them fought each other (or even ever looked like doing) meaning there was never an easily identifiable way to benchmark and accuaratly assess their abilities.

Williams was always my favourite and a was brilliant in a couple of fights (Taylor in particular). However I think his stock fell a bit after the first Samuels fight and I think the Martinez losses finished any discussions putting him in top class. Although Martinez looked handy at the time, in a period where the standard of challengers for the WBU/IBO/WBF belts were on the whole fairly woeful, he was seen as no more than a good import rather than a future 2-weight world champion.

Plenty of good light middleweights about at that time,good fights that could have been made,but wasnt....

best of the bunch in my eyes

Tommy Gunn13 wrote:Plenty of good light middleweights about at that time,good fights that could have been made,but wasnt....

best of the bunch in my eyes

UK i mean...

had some ability.

shame he never boxed the other domestic lads at the time.

except for paul samuels.

the steve roberts fight could have easily been made. :>

i just wonder should we not be so hard on williams and alexander and takaloo given that they did end up fighting very good fighters, martinez and harry simon and daniel santos.

i suppose they all could have made the domestic scene a lot better.

how good a win is williams, for martinez?

williams did look really classy, especially when he got in his stride. a textbook fighter who could fight short and apply good pressure. but there seemed to be a fragility about him - he didn't seem so good if things weren't going perfectly. he looked very vulnerable in the first samuels fight; in the 2nd fight he looked razor sharp and very good. he dropped martinez a couple of times (1st fight) but looked completely lost in the mid stages and utterly spent in the latter stages.

i think his career would have looked a lot better if he'd beaten eastman, during his middleweight comeback.

The weekly "Secret" thread is here kids.

Tomorrow; "Where's Ike Ibeabuchi"

He was scheduled to face Alex Bunema once, I recall. Wasn't it on the undercard of Hamed-Calvo? That would have been the biggest fight of his career, which says a lot.

Like others have said, he just seemed too inactive and 'nice' to get anywhere. He never really seemed the type to upset anyone in order to progress with his career. Some fighters are hell-bent on getting the top and will do whatever they can to get there. Williams didn't seem the sort. So long as he could find a title, defend it a few times and make a bit of dosh, he was probably content. He was also in his early 30s by the time he even threatened to hit the ground running and, by that time, some of his speed and reflexes were already fading.

Poncey wrote:The weekly "Secret" thread is here kids.

Tomorrow; "Where's Ike Ibeabuchi"

be nice.

but don't forget harry simon, too, ya shower o' shite!

i never followed williams' career - first i saw of him was vs eastman. didn't really see him in actiojn until i got the martinez fights on DVD.

It's a forum in-joke:
http://boxrec.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=120415

He was a class act. Truly wonderful offensive fighter. Excellent posie and balance. Leaky defence his only major issue. Oh and the fact he was managed terribly.

Jeff Thomas wrote:He was a class act. Truly wonderful offensive fighter. Excellent posie and balance. Leaky defence his only major issue. Oh and the fact he was managed terribly.

disagree about richards defence

it was hearn he was with wasnt it?? & i think roberts aswell. hearn couldnt seem to open doors, i feel at the time williams & roberts could of competed at world level.its took martinez alongtime to get there & look what he's doing 2 weight world champion :!:

As some have already hinted at, we were denied an amazing series of fights with those British Light-Middles.

Williams, Alexander, Roberts etc, could have been amazing. Rematches the lot.

fornicating boxing politics.

Poncey wrote:The weekly "Secret" thread is here kids.

Tomorrow; "Where's Ike Ibeabuchi"

this valero stuff makes what ike did seem like small fry.

Goz wrote:As some have already hinted at, we were denied an amazing series of fights with those British Light-Middles.

Williams, Alexander, Roberts etc, could have been amazing. Rematches the lot.

fornicating boxing politics.

Boom. We had a fantastic light middle era back then but the fights when they mattered never got made. Roberts was to busy defending his WBF bauble and only boxed because he was good at it. I got the impression he didnt have much interest in boxing suffice to say since he retired hide no hair has been seen of him since. To think the Ring had that man ranked in their top 10 was nothing short of a travesty.

Alexander was a great TV fighter. His battles with Sameuls Simon and Tak will go down in British history. What a puncher! Our very own Julian Jackson.

As for Williams very very nice guy who made a living ferrying meals and wheels to the elderly but he was simply too inactive. Was sad to see his ass get handed to him literally by Martinez who back then was on a tear and destroyed the semi-retired Adrian Stone.

Richard Williams was the bomb !

i've been to a Richard Williams fight, altho I don't remember a great deal about it. He outpointed (I believe) Hussain Osman at Hartlepool's Borough Hall. Looked decent, it was a cagey affair as I remember it.

Kevin Bennet got stopped that night by Gary Ryder who pursued him mercilessly. I remember being a bit gutted as the reception Bennett received was off the scale to me watching my first pro show.