BoxRec

Some nice footage here of his fight with Beau Jack, the end is pretty brutal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBIs09wpbIw

What are people's opinions on Williams, where should he be ranked amongst the light weights and how hard of a puncher was he?

Williams is in the Top 10 Lightweights of all time....probably in Top 5. Good all round fighter, solid puncher.

J

Only Whitaker, Duran, Armstrong and Benny Leonard were definitely better at lightweight in my opinion.

I'm not sure Williams couldn't have taken Whitaker.

Williams-Duran . . what a fight!

Extraordinary and excellent boxer. One of the top 5 greatest lightweights of all time and definately, the greatest lightweight of his generation in an era where the lightweight division was at its complete best: Beau Jack, Bob Montgomery, Sammy Angott, Willie Joyce, Juan Zurita, Maxie Berger, Enrique Bolanos, Allie Stolz, Johnny Bratton, Jesse Flores, Freddie Dawson, Eddie Giosa and Tippy Larkin. Fought them all and beat them all. Has there ever been a greater lightweight that beat these great quality of opposition?...I do not see many.

The Ring Fighter of the Year in 1948.
World Lightweight Champion from 1945 to 1951
Made 8 successful title defenses
Fought over 150 fights...That is an average of 10 fights a year in 15 years as a pro.
Beat 6 out of 8 hall of famers
Beat 6 world champions
His greatest victory and defining fight: WTKO6 Bob Montgomery...August 4, 1947..."Avenges early career defeat for the undisputed world lightweight title"



He is definately in my top 50 greatest boxers of all time. What a great fighter.

As a young boy I seen all of Williams's fight against Enrique Bolanos live (1946-48-49) here in L.A., I defintely think that he is in the top 5 all time greats as a lightweight.

Ike Williams claimed that Ray Robinson took a dive against Maxim.

KOJOE90 wrote:Ike Williams claimed that Ray Robinson took a dive against Maxim.

Where did you see that?

kikibalt wrote:As a young boy I seen all of Williams's fight against Enrique Bolanos live (1946-48-49) here in L.A., I defintely think that he is in the top 5 all time greats as a lightweight.

Please tell us more about what you saw.

..for once i have nothing to add.....ike williams is my favorite all-time lightweight.

..re: robinson/maxim.....gene fullmer said he had no inside knowledge but he had a theory that each fighter had bet on the other one...

if it wasn't boxing writer joe williams it was a contemporary who ...without using names.....hinted strongly he thought robinson took a dive...

....i think this is nonsense...saw the fight on live tv and have watched the film many times...and the dive idea just doesn't hold up..

Jaclem wrote:..

....i think this is nonsense...saw the fight on live tv and have watched the film many times...and the dive idea just doesn't hold up..

Are you that old?

..elmer...yes.

elmersalsa wrote:

Jaclem wrote:..

....i think this is nonsense...saw the fight on live tv and have watched the film many times...and the dive idea just doesn't hold up..

Are you that old?

Jaclem is the grand old Oak tree of the Boxrec garden. His bark may be slightly weathered but his roots are still strong.

..thanks kayo...ah yes..my bark is a tad weathered, only because i don't let myself get all crazy when someone disgrees with me. take care, however, as my bite is nastier than ever.

i sat my my grandfather and lsitened to joe louis on the radio during his title reign. the first one i remember is louis/scmeling II. i saw the films at the theatre of both fights ....the first one was reissued before the rematch and the sceond one days later. except for the louis fights i didn't get interested until the early forties....started buying ring magazxine when i was a pre-teen and began listening to the friday night fights on radio.
in addition to covering the current fights, ring magazine printed a lot of stories about the early days, and was a good history source.



i deny that i ever saw john. l. sullivan...but my grandfather did.