When 2025 started, Troy Williamson was coming off the back of consecutive losses.
He started the year with another.
A further defeat in September to Mark Dickinson might have taken him to the brink of a new life, one away from the ring, and defeat might have condemned him to that future for good.
However, the 21-4-1 (15 KOs) Williamson was not prepared to go quietly.
He shocked Dickinson in one of the year’s upsets and that not only brought him back from the edge but it has served to catapult him into a December 20 fight with European super middleweight champion Callum Simpson, in Leeds, on the BBC.
It’s a huge stage for the likeable and earnest veteran pro, but one he had no doubts about taking.
“I think obviously after the victory over Mark then it got put to me and, obviously, I’m a fighter,” Williamson, 34, told BoxingScene. “It’s a good fight, it makes sense, it gives me a chance to become a two-time British champion. I accepted it and I pushed for it and we’ve got it now. He seems like a cool guy. I’ve only really seen him once or twice at shows, so I don’t know personally, but he’s a great fighter, he’s unbeaten, he’s a great champion and I’m looking forward to sharing the ring with him.”
It's been 25 years since the Newcastle man first stepped into Darlington Amateur Boxing Club. Then only 10 years old, he was a year too young to compete and his head was turned by soccer. He played from the age of 11 to 16 by which time a new boxing gym opened near his home and he started over.
Three months later, when he turned 17, he fought for the first time and said that within five months he was boxing like a natural.
Twenty-four fights later, he was on the Team GB squad, travelling the globe and facing top amateurs on a team with Joshua Buatsi, Joe Cordina, Daniel Dubois, and Anthony Fowler.
“I always knew I was capable of winning the British title,” he said of when he turned pro.
“But I turned over with no backing. I was on these small hall shows selling tickets to pay for my opponent and I wasn’t getting no opportunities. I just stuck with it, like how I have done recently. I just stuck with it and I just knew that my time would come and I would just have to fight after fight after fight. And then eventually I got the British title eliminator, I boxed Kevin Smith. He was unbeaten, 16-0 at the time, big, tall, southpaw. And I beat him. And then obviously, then I got the Ted Cheeseman fight and then I knew that it was my time to become a British champion.”
The journey to this point has been rough for Williamson. He’s been given nothing. He’s done it all the hard way. He didn’t have just one setback. He was not written off just once.
“It could have been better,” he smiled. “I could have been promoted better and directed better, I believe. I think being from Darlington, a little small town in the North East, I haven’t had the opportunities that I’ve seen other fighters get. Well, I’ve beaten the lads and I’ve seen them get opportunities that I should have had. But was the juice worth the squeeze? December 20th, when I get the big win, yes.”
While he hopes Simpson will be a new highlight, it’s the memory of his first British title win that remains his fondest from boxing.
Once again, he wore the underdog tag.
“A lot of people were writing me off,” he explained. “Nobody gave me a chance, but that’s only because I didn’t have no airtime before then, didn’t box on TV once before that night, so nobody knew who I was. To go there and win the British title in that style, it was a great night.”
It is such low expectations that others have of him that has enabled him to fight unshackled by the burden of pressure. But Williamson also lives the life, he is always in shape, doesn’t cut corners and that enhances his confidence, too.
“I don’t really feel the pressure because I know how hard I work and what sacrifices I do,” said Troy. “People being negative to me and when I see all these negative comments, all it does is fuel the fire and it makes me train harder.”
It wasn’t enough against Josh Kelly several years ago in a North East derby.
Williamson accepted the bad guy role for that, anticipating – correctly – that it would help at the gate.
“Those big fights, those big opportunities, they generally come with someone playing a role. I had to just stir the pot,” Williamson said. “I don't think I need to do it with Callum. That [versus Kelly] was two North East fighters, opening the North East in a big arena. We needed to sell tickets, so it had to be done. I turned up to his fight in the Newcastle top and I just stirred the pot a little bit and we pretty much sold it out, so it worked. I think with Callum, he’s a big ticket seller, I’m a big ticket seller. I don’t think we need to stir that pot. We just let our fists do the fighting on fight night.”
And while Williamson has plenty of respect for the champion, he does not consider Simpson as the best opponent he has faced.
“I think he's obviously got the best accolades,” admitted Williamson.
“He’s a British Commonwealth and European champion, but skill-wise, I don’t think he’s the best I’ve fought, no. I know weight-to-weight, he’s obviously bigger, but I think I’ve boxed at a higher level than him and I think that I’m going to be his toughest fight, if I’m honest. I don’t think he’s boxed nobody on my level.”
There have been times, Williamson confesses, that he has not enjoyed boxing and he has considered walking away.
He knew Dickinson would be his ticket, perhaps his final ticket, back to the bigger stages.
“No disrespect to Mark, we sparred loads of rounds and he’s a phenomenal fighter, but I just knew that that sort of fighter, he’d bring the best out of me,” Williamson explained.
“I was so happy because, again, every single person wrote me off and I was basically fed to a maturing prospect just to get beat as being a half-decent name in British boxing. I was overwhelmed to get the win.”
Now he hopes Simpson will also bring the best out in him, and it’s a challenge Williamson is embracing.
“Definitely and [it’s] one that I’m really, really excited for,” he continued. “I’ve seen people saying he’s too big, people are saying he’s too fit, this, that. I’m probably one of the fittest guys out there. I get myself supremely fit, but we’re both going to weigh in at 12 stone. He can only put so much weight on, like, [for] fight night. These are just his supporters, I understand. The only person who can fight for him is himself on the night, so all these people are just chatting shit, they can’t do nothing fight night.”
