Liam Williams

Born on May 26, 1992 in Church Village, Wales, Liam Williams is a scrappy fighter who started his boxing training when he was just 9 years old. Although no one else in his family was into boxing, he went with a friend to the Rhondda Amateur Boxing Club due to his love of fighting. Williams had a successful amateur career, winning a total of seven Welsh titles and six British titles. His most impressive achievement as an amateur was winning the 2011 Senior ABA Championships. He finished his amateur career with 44 wins in 49 fights.

When he turned pro, he trained out of Enzo Calzaghe’s Newbridge boxing club under Gary Lockett. He had his professional debut when he was 19 years old, fighting Ryan Clark on November 19, 2011. Considering Clark’s record at the time was 1-44-4, it was clear he was brought in to lose, and Williams ended up winning on points. He would follow that up by notching two more points victories over two more fighters with subpar records, the 4-8 Tommy Tolan and the 1-2 Gilson De Jesus.

Liam Williams started to come into his own more in his next three fights, earning TKO victories in each of them. After another decision win, he had his first fight against a boxer with a winning record when he faced the 6-1 Darren Codona on August 17, 2013. He ended up winning another decision.

His next fight was against Tyan Booth, and it ended up being ruled a draw by technical decision. To that point in his career, Liam Williams had been winning, but he hadn’t been particularly impressive in doing so. The majority of his fights were against low-level boxers with far more losses than victories, and he hadn’t fought anyone of note. However, he seemed to turn a corner after the draw against Booth, as he would go on a string of stoppage victories, showing that he did have the ability to be a finisher.

First, he won a TKO against Yuri Pompilio. He followed that with an excellent performance against the 15-1 Ronnie Heffron and won by corner stoppage. A KO victory over Stepan Horvath set him up for a shot at the Commonwealth super welterweight title on November 24, 2014 against Michael Lomax. He put on a show in his first title fight and won by a dominant TKO. In his next fight against Kris Carslaw, he scored another TKO victory and added the BBBofC super welterweight title to his collection.

He held on to his belts with another TKO on June 4, 2016, this one over Gustavo Alberto Sanchez. Barely over a month later he fought Gary Corcoran, who was 15-0, and earned another TKO to hand Corcoran his first loss.

With his impressive performances, Williams ended up with a shot at the WBO European super welterweight title in his next fight, which took place on November 26, 2016. He was fighting Gabor Gorbics, and the result was the same as it was in his previous four fights – a win by TKO.