Liam Williams: record, next fight and profile →
Frank Warren, promoter for Liam Williams, believes his man would create a lot of problems for WBO middleweight world champion Demetrius Andrade. Andrade returned to the ring on Thursday night in Miami, and stopped voluntary challenger Luke Keeler in nine rounds. Keeler was down twice in the fight.
Liam Williams is in for an exciting next two years after rediscovering his love for the sport, according to his trainer, Dominic Ingle. He switched trainers from Gary Lockett to Ingle on the back of his second defeat to Liam Smith in 2017 and Ingle believes that moving away from his home in South Wales for training has helped the 27-year-old concentrate on his boxing.
A FEW DAYS late but we are still at that juncture where it is timely to reveal a few New Year’s resolutions or a wish list. I’ve seen a number of people keeping it topical and piping up with their 20/20 vision, so here is mine and let’s see how much of it we can make come true over the course of the next 12 months.
Liam Williams says the decision to switch his training camps from South Wales to Sheffield has turned him into a hungrier fighter and equipped him for winning a world title in 2020. Williams, the British middleweight champion, recorded the finest win of his career when he cut down Alantez Fox in five one-sided rounds at the Copper Box, London, last weekend and while Paco Valcarcel, the WBO president, took to Twitter to deny that the fight was a final eliminator for their WBO middleweight title, Williams believes he will get a world-title shot early in the New Year.
IT WAS LIKE a bumper Christmas box at our final fight night of the year on Saturday and hopefully the show delivered something for everyone. It was that sort of night. From Sunny Edwards picking himself up off the floor to continue his highly-skilled pursuit of titles galore, to Tommy Fury wowing his huge band of followers with a quick-fire showstopper, to Daniel Dubois just doing what Daniel Dubois does.
Liam Williams moved closer to a dream world title fight with a dominant fifth-round stoppage of American Alantez Fox. He claimed the WBO intercontinental title and and won an eliminator for the full belt, which is held by Demetrius Andrade. The bout was briefly delayed at the start when Williams’s trainer Dominic Ingle checked the ring ropes and said they were too slack, so he had them tightened. Williams won the first round well, even at times outjabbing the 6ft 4in American, but by the end of the session he was cut by the left eye.
The British champion is backing himself and we are backing him by securing a fight that holds the key to a world title shot. Liam is in blistering form and one of the most explosive and exciting fighters in Britain, but he is now up against someone with the same ambitions as himself and something has got to give.
Daniel Dubois looks to put an exclamation point on a terrific 2019, entering his fifth fight of the year as he faces Japan's Kyotaro Fujimoto in a scheduled 12-round regional heavyweight title fight. Both were within their relative weight range during Friday's ceremonial weigh-in. London's Dubois (13-0, 12KOs) tipped the scales at 240 pounds, while Japan’s Fujimoto checked in at 230.25 pounds for their headlining bout Saturday evening at Copper Box Arena in Hackney Wick, London, England.
There remains plenty at stake for this weekend’s middleweight clash between Liam Williams and Alantez Fox, including the chance to eventually fight for a major title. It’s just not an opportunity that is guaranteed to take place next for the winner. BoxingScene.com has learned that Saturday’s crossroads bout—which airs live on BT Sport and ESPN+ from Copper Box Arena in Hackney Wick, England—will not carry sanctioning as a World Boxing Organization (WBO) final middleweight title eliminator, as previously advertised. The WBO Inter-Continental title will be at stake but does not ensure the winner will next face reigning middleweight titlist Demetrius Andrade.
Dubois-Fujimoto, Tommy Fury, Williams Photos Gallery - DANIEL DUBOIS AND his opponent at the Copper Box Arena, Kyotaro Fujimoto, went face-to-face for the first time at the BT studios in Stratford ahead of the bumper ‘The Fight Before Christmas’ show on Saturday night, live on BT Sport 1, with the WBC Silver and WBO International heavyweight titles at stake.