Flyweight Ryan Williams is in a familiar situation. He is waiting for an opponent.

Williams will return on a card headlined by lightweight contender Albert Bell against a yet-to-be-named opponent on April 12 at Huntington Center in Toledo, Ohio.

Williams, a 20-year-old from Toledo, is a junior bantamweight, but has essentially had to take bouts at whatever weight that will allow him to land a fight. For example, Williams fought well above his preferred weight in a featherweight bout February 21 against Quayshon Evans, whom he stopped in one round. The fight was originally scheduled to take place at junior bantamweight, but then a few days out from the fight it was changed as Evans, 0-4, of Kalamazoo, Michigan, was unable to make weight. It is a common theme in Williams’ career.

“I told the matchmaker, you need to get started early with Ryan. You are going to go through 10 guys,” Robert Mumford, Williams’ grandfather and trainer, told BoxingScene. “We went through 11 guys for the first fight and 10 or 11 guys for this fight.”

Mumford has a plan. After Williams’ fight in April, he aims to move him up to higher profile fights, fights with longer durations. Williams, 2-0 (2 KOs), is currently an independent fighter.

“It is a gift and curse,” Mumford said.  I just told Ryan after this fight that he’s got to develop super quick to eight rounds, because nobody is going to fight him in the developing stages.”

What Williams faces is a familiar problem for young fighters of the lower weight divisions. He is a talented and decorated amateur starting his career off with his family beside him. Mumford, the lead trainer of Team Cartel Boxing, is a decorated amateur coach with several national champions. The talent pool in the U.S. is small for junior bantamweights and even smaller for those who are willing to take a tough four-round fight with Williams. Those willing might either ask for a lot of money or not want the fight at all. Mumford believes the best course of action is getting Williams into eight-round fights and beyond, high-quality fighter territory, so they can have training camps geared around one fighter. 

“If we don’t do that, then he won’t be able to fight,” Mumford said. “The only people who are willing to fight him will not fight him in a four-round fight.”

Lucas Ketelle is the author of “Inside the Ropes of Boxing,” a guide for young fighters, a writer for BoxingScene and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Find him on X at @BigDogLukie.