By Rick Reeno

DaVarryl Williamson (22-3, 18KOs) is one of those fighters who proves time and time again, if you don't give up and hang in there, you will eventually get your shot at glory. On October 1, Williamson goes into the biggest fight of his career when he gets a crack at IBF heavyweight champion Chris Byrd in Reno, Nevada. After losing to Joe Mesi and Wladimir Klitschko in his two previous television appearances, Williams vows that the third time is the charm. Nicknamed "Touch of Sleep" for his deadly right hand, DaVarryl says that he will unleash the deadly punch before the Showtime audience in order to prove that he is the best heavyweight in the world.  

Williamson had an outstanding amateur career, a record of 120-17-1 with 103 KOs, which comes out to 88% knockout ratio.  He was a 10-time National Amateur Boxing champion; the Golden Gloves champion in 1996 and 1999; and the first and only heavyweight to be the United States National champion for three straight years, from 1996 to 1998.  He was the first alternate during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.  He could have turned pro in 1996, but opted to remain an amateur, earn his master’s degree, and tried to be a 2000 Olympian.
 
After winning 18 of his first 19 fights, he was knocked out 1:46 of the first round by undefeated Joe Mesi Sept. 27, 2003. Suffering a loss in a high profile HBO main event, devastated the career of Williamson. The Mesi loss was held over DaVarryl's head by the media and inspired him to work even harder in the ring.
 
Williamson showed a much better effort in a split decision loss to Wladimir Klitschko on Oct. 2, 2004.  Williamson boxed, knocked Klitschko down and was holding his own in a close fight. A cut suffered on Klitschko's forehead forced the ringside physician Margaret Goodman to stop the bout before the beginning of the sixth round. Williamson was upset over the stoppage because he felt the momentum in the fight was shifting in his direction.
 
After winning hard fought fights against big hitters like Oliver McCall and Derrek Jefferson, he set his sights on fighting for a world title.
 
BoxingScene sat down with Williamson to talk about his upcoming fight with Chris Byrd, his accomplishments and much more.
 
BoxingScene.com: I talk to a lot of heavyweights out there and they tell me that you were a monster in the amateurs.
 
DaVarryl Williamson: They are being too kind to me. I had some good days and enjoyed my time on top. We had some successes there....that's for sure.
 
BoxingScene.com: Did you get your nickname of "Touch of Sleep" in the professional ranks or when you were still in the amateurs?
 
DaVarryl Williamson: I got it when I was an amateur, from one of my roommates, who is a dear friend....Lawrence Clay Bey. And he is a good heavyweight as well. 
 
BoxingScene.com: I'm sure he's glad that he didn't feel the "touch of sleep."
 
DaVarryl Williamson: (laughing) He did feel it at that time, that's how he came up with the name. We sparred probably close to 800 rounds or over 800 rounds.
 
BoxingScene.com: How long have you been in camp for the Byrd fight? The fight was set fairly quick.
 
DaVarryl Williamson: I usually stay pretty close to my conditioning level as early as 15, 20 days before a fight. We actually didn't begin camp until it was really, really close to being official. I knew that Chris and I were going to fight. We both knew that we would be each other's next opponents, we just didn't know when it was going to happen. We didn't know if it would September, October, November or even December. I just didn't know. In the boxing game, especially the heavyweights, you have to stay at least halfway ready. And I don't know anybody that does it any better than me or Chris. We stay in decent shape, not all year long, but close enough to be in striking distance.
 
BoxingScene.com: You never know in the heavyweight division, you have to always be ready. Oliver McCall filled in for Andrew Golota at the last minute on the Hasim Rahman-Monte Barrett undercard and now he back in the running.
 
DaVarryl Williamson: Exactly, these days heavyweights are falling down like flies. Some guys get injuries and such, but these things happen in boxing.
 
BoxingScene.com: I know you were very upset with the end result of your fight with Wladimir Klitschko and I also know that you felt that he took the easy way when he sensed that you were starting to come on.
 
DaVarryl Williamson: Exactly, you have to watch his fights and he always, I don't want to say gassed out. It's a human game and If he's not ahead or way ahead in a fight, he could get shook up. So, I think the plan for the fight with him was to lay in the weeds for the first couple of rounds and even laying in the weeds, I was having my way with him. If you look at his face, he had cut over his left eye, he had another cut, he was bleeding and that was from me laying the weeds. If I would have stepped to him, I have no idea what his face would have looked like.
 
We were happy because we didn't have to take the abuse that Wladimir Klitschko hit Lamon Brewster with to win the fight. We were confident that the fight was going to go my way, I have no doubts in my mind. And that's why he didn't want to go 12 rounds, he cried, moaned and groaned about having to go 10 rounds. He still wants the love and recognition of a true contender to make his mark.
 
BoxingScene.com: You went a few rounds with him. Does he appear to get intimidated when a fighter with a big punch is aggressive with him. It seemed that when he did fight big guys like Jameel McCline, they didn't fight him like big heavyweights and allowed him to control the pace.
 
DaVarryl Williamson: I do have a punch and the strategy I used last year was to lay in the weeds. I don't what he will do in the Sam Peter fight. Personally I don't care because I'm so focused on Chris Byrd and he is the only guy on my mind right now.
 
BoxingScene.com: Should you beat Chris, you could be facing the winner of that fight next. Their bout is an eliminator for an IBF mandatory shot.
 
DaVarryl Williamson: Rick, you can't look past Byrd. He is the longest reigning heavyweight champion of the world, he beat Vitali Klitschko. They are matching me with the true heavyweight champion of the world. I know they don't give him that kind of notoriety. Out of the four heavyweight champions, only two of them have fought each other and Chris beat Vitali Klitschko. Whether he pecked you to death or he punched you, he did something to win that fight. Why isn't he considered the heavyweight champion of the world?
 
BoxingScene.com: The same reason everything happens in boxing, politics.
 
DaVarryl Williamson: That's it, politics and the media. I agree with you.
 
BoxingScene.com: Do you think that over the years, Chris Byrd has slowed down a bit? He appears to not move around as much and stands flatfooted more often then we are accustomed to seeing him do in the past.
 
DaVarryl Williamson: I sure hope so. I've seen sporadically here and there, that he has chosen to fight a different kind of style. I think Chris Byrd is really good, like a Roy Jones Jr. or a Muhammad Ali. These people who are able to get away with their instincts. Now, sometimes the fundamentals will carry you over. Some things you do very well, sort of technical, your foundation, your fundamentals, allow you to get away with certain things. If you survive on your instincts and how you react, this is not the fight for you to be flatfooted, not with me.
 
BoxingScene.com: I've studied the tapes and many people agree with my viewpoint on your style matching up very well to Chris and presenting him with problems.
 
DaVarryl Williamson: Yeah, I'm going to give him more than trouble. Chris is my friend, we have had many competitive sparring matches over the years. It's going to be very good for both of us. To take the head gear off, take off the 18 ounce gloves. Bloody noses turn into broken noses, little cuts could turn into big cuts. We are certainly up for the challenge and very excited about our chances in the Byrd fight.
 
BoxingScene.com: Does the power of network TV and being on their platform, make the casual fan thinking of a fighter being as good as his last fight more apparent? Once you suffered the devastating loss to Joe Mesi, people forgot about all of your past accomplishments and hold that loss over your head to this day.
 
DaVarryl Williamson: That's ok, it's what the media will choose to do and you can't worry about it. They forget that I fought Lamon Brewster, Monte Barrett, Terry Smith and Calvin Brock in the amateurs. I fought Lamon Brewster 4 times, I fought Calvin Brock four times. Out of all those fight I only lost once between those guys. Everybody in the heavyweight division knows me. I'm not some sort of best kept secret or something that fell out of the sky. Everybody who is a heavyweight knows me. You can ask anybody in the game of boxing. You can ask Lawrence Clay Bey, Lance Whitaker, Hasim Rahman, any name in the heavyweight division.
 
I remember when I fought in Germany, the Klitschko brothers were these two tall guys that were skinny like string beans. A few years later you would think they were eating gorilla wafers or something. Their bodies are all chiseled up, they used to be two skinny guys. Everybody in the game of boxing, around the world knows Touch of Sleep.
 
BoxingScene.com: Speaking of your Touch of Sleep moniker, there is another fighter using your nickname. An undefeated heavyweight named Donnell Holmes (23-0-1, 22KOs) is calling himself "The Real Touch of Sleep".
 
DaVarryl Williamson: Yeah, Donnell Holmes. The guy comes out of North Carolina and fought maybe two guys with winning records. It doesn't even match. He was somewhat, a good regional fighter. He won his region, the Tennessee circuit or North Carolina to make the golden gloves. He never won a national tournament and was always like a semi-finalist.
 
BoxingScene.com: I know Clay Bey wasn't the same guy who gave him that nickname?
 
DaVarryl Williamson: (laughing) No he wasn't. Holmes has some tattoo on his shoulder or something like that. I have been living with this name of Touch of Sleep since April of 95. There is only one Touch of Sleep.
 
BoxingScene.com: I know you went through hell to get this fight with Byrd, inside and outside the ring. Eliminators, lawsuits and now you are here. After the loss of Joe Mesi, a lot pretty much wrote you off and said you were nothing. Now here you are, two weeks away from challenging for the IBF heavyweight title. How does that make you feel?
 
DaVarryl Williamson: You have to ask yourself, what was wrong with DaVarryl Williamson the night he fought Joe Mesi. It may not come out for years, but Karma is always in effect. God don't like ugly. Look where I am and where Joe Mesi is. Look at the situation Rick, God don't like ugly. He may have looked good that night, but in the long run he won the fight and I won the war. I would rather be in my shoes that night than his shoes. Whose shoes do you think he would rather be in right now, mine or his? That wasn't me Rick, it wasn't me. I never looked like that before that, I looked like I wasn't almost on something.
 
Rick, I raised that kid. I took Joe Mesi to Sweden and Finland to fight and he was shaking like a leaf on a tree. I know for a fact that Joe Mesi is not that good. Joe Mesi and I sparred a number of times in the Olympic games and I had my way with him so many times that the coaches had to stop putting us in the ring together. I'm telling you the serious facts, his father could tell you. Do you think Joe Mesi could beat Oliver McCall? Do you think Joe Mesi could beat Wladimir Klitschko?
 
BoxingScene.com: Those two guys are very dangerous punchers. In his last two fights, Joe had to dig deep against Monte Barrett and Vassily Jirov to win.
 
DaVarryl Williamson: (cutting in) Exactly, thank you very much. I raised this kid, I know exactly what he has and what he doesn't have. I'm not trying to take anything away from this kid. I'm just telling you the facts, the ballistics.
 
BoxingScene.com: It appeared that when you fought Wladimir Klitschko and when you fought Joe Mesi, it was like two different guys in the ring. You seemed more sure of yourself, more confident, you were ready to let your hands go.
 
DaVarryl Williamson: Exactly, thank you. I'm always sure of myself and always have a sense of confidence. These are the same guys that I fought in the amateurs. I had 138 fights in the amateurs, I won 120 of them and lost only 17. I fought an Italian champion in Italy and got a draw. Think about it, an Italian champ in Italy and got a draw, now who do you think won the fight? Not to mention that 103 of my wins were knockouts, 103 times someone never heard the final bell.
 
BoxingScene.com: Those are impressive numbers considering the guys you fought when you were there. Are you sure that some of the heavyweights calling you a monster in the amateurs were being too kind?
 
DaVarryl Williamson: I was just being humble. If you were a heavyweight, you knew who I was. Guys were running not to fight me. I remember one particular time Rick, nobody knew if I was going to heavyweight or super heavyweight and they were all running from me. I moved up to super heavyweight and this one fighter from Philadelphia, I can't remember his name, was so happy that I moved up that he offered to take me out to dinner. They were jumping rope late at night trying to lose a few pounds in order to drop down in weight because they didn't know which way I was going. Whichever way I was going, they went the opposite.
 
In 1997, I was on the front cover of USA Boxing magazine and was considered pound for pound the best amateur in the United States of America. This was when Cory Spinks, Ricardo Williams and all these guys were coming there. Floyd Mayweather, Fernando Vargas, I raised these kids. Diego Corrales, David Diaz, all of these guys know exactly who I am. We all lived in close quarters. I did not turn pro in 1996 because I wanted to stay in school to get the opportunity to finish my grad work, my master's degree in Northern Michigan University and it was in conjunction with the Olympic program. It was a deal you couldn't beat with a baseball bat. You go to school for free, you get ready for the Olympics, fight in the Good Will games, the world championships and you get to travel the world with your two bare hands. A chance of a lifetime.
 
BoxingScene.com: Do you think some guys don't take the smart route and back themselves up with a college degree?  They think they will win a few fights, make a few million and have no idea how hard it is to make it in this business.
 
DaVarryl Williamson: They have no idea and I try to give constructive criticism to all the guys, because I was already older when I got into the game. I was trying to tell these guys that play the pro sports, football, basketball. I played with the best of the guys. Same guys you see on TV in the NBA and the All Star Games, I played against them and whipped those guys. Out of the Washington, DC area. It's just huge of who I am and where I come from. Back then, Floyd Mayweather and Antonio Tarver were helping me inside the ring and I was helping them outside the ring.
 
I showed them how to pay their cable bill and things like that. They gave me confidence in the ring because they were so mature in that ring and I was mature outside of the ring. I showed them what to do on the outside and they gave me the confidence on the inside. We traveled the world together.
 
BoxingScene.com: You and Chris are good friends. Some heavyweight fights where friends are involved, like Rahman and Barrett, end up being very unpleasant to watch. In other cases like when Chris fought McCline, you have two guys going all out to win.
 
DaVarryl Williamson: I'll tell you, at the end of the day it's about winning the fight and you have to do exactly that. There is no second guessing as to what you are going to do or not. I want to win for my family, for myself, for history, for a number of things.
 
BoxingScene.com: You always seem to have a good eye for how styles play out in fights. What is your take on the other heavyweight fight on your card, between James Toney and Dominick Guinn?
 
DaVarryl Williamson: It all depends on what Dominick Guinn shows up. James Toney is going to use a lot of his instincts from over the years to lure him to sleep and try to knock him out. James is going to be very economical in the fight. Guinn has a new trainer, new promoters, a new environment. Maybe he needed something like this, he might show something that he is still the fighter that had the potential. We have to wait and see what Guinn shows up.
 
James Toney will have a whole bag of tricks. I think he will come in heavy, maybe even heavier than his last fight where he was 233. James will have his whole bag of tricks and we have to see what Dominick shows up. Sometimes you have a different reason, managerial problems, promotional problems. I don't know if it was that they didn't believe in him or there was another heavyweight making more money than him. That type of stuff plays with your head. For example, another guy fights for 8 rounds and makes 6500 and he fights for 8 rounds and gets 3500. All of these things play with your head. You start thinking the promoters believe in the other guy more than you.
 
When I started in this game, my good friend Lawrence Clay Bey told me that whatever you get from a promotion, get your pay and live with it. He told me never to look at what the next guy is getting. You get an honest day's pay for an honest day's work. You can't start worrying about what this guy is getting and that guy is getting. The point that Dominick was even chosen as an opponent for James Toney, for his first fight coming off the suspension for steroids, shows that he believes that Dominick is still a good fighter and still has a little bit of a name. He might not be ranked up there, but if he beats James Toney, because James' name is so big, he will be right back up there in the mix. Maybe even in the top 5 across the board.
 
BoxingScene.com: What would you like to say in closing to the people who are reading this?
 
DaVarryl Williamson: I want to thank the people who believe in me and appreciate the doubters for motivating me. I was like a choo choo train, I knew I could, I knew I could, I thought I can, I thought I can. I feel very good about the decisions I have made in my life and how everything is coming into fruition in my life right now. I'm on a very high motivation, there is a high morale in the gym. I want to thank my sparring partners, I want to give them a hug. They are putting themselves on the line everyday by pushing me to the limit to beat Chris Byrd on October 1st.
 
BoxingScene.com: To the kids who are on drugs, in bad homes, taken risks, living in bad environments, urban cities. I represent a lot of people in a lot of different ways and I hope that they live through me and see that they can pick themselves up and make it. I hope they can feel what I'm at and let me be their voice to show that you can do something. Sometimes you will be a later bloomer, I'm a late bloomer. At 25 years olds, how would I know that at 37 I would be the heavyweight champion of the world. Who would know? All of those people out there that want to try something and think it may think it is too late in their life, just do it. Take a chance and do it because you will never know unless you try. Take a risk.
 
I want to thank BoxingScene.com and Fox Sports, for thinking of me, the little guy, and giving me this opportunity.