Liam Williams is retiring from boxing at age 32.
The Welshman was a two-weight British champion and held the Commonwealth strap at super welterweight. He unsuccessfully challenged Demetrius Andrade for the WBO middleweight title in 2021 in the United States.
Williams (25-5-1, 20 KOs) attributes the reason for his retirement to concussions he suffered while boxing and explained to BBC Sport that he was worried about further brain damage that he could receive if he continued sparring and fighting.
“I’d had some problems with concussions. I had three or four in 18 months. I don’t want to box just for money and get a hit to the head you can never come back from.”
Williams told BBC Sport that he was concussed by an elbow in his 2021 world title defeat and was then concussed again during a sparring session in the build-up to his next fight against Chris Eubank Jr.
A doctor advised him not to take the Eubank Jr. fight due to the second concussion he received, but Williams opted to go through with it due to the massive financial incentive connected with the bout and because it was a long-awaited opportunity for Williams to headline in Wales.
“I probably knew I shouldn’t box Eubank, but there was a lot of money on the table,” Williams said. “The fight was in Cardiff and I had sold a lot of tickets. I sold £200,000 worth of tickets from my house, it was crazy. I didn’t want to let people down, so I didn’t say anything.”
Eubank Jr. knocked down Williams four times in their 12-round contest, and at one point Williams was dropped with a single jab. It was clear he had no punch resistance left. Despite this, Williams continued with his career.
The former title challenger racked up two wins on the bounce against overmatched opposition before taking on another significant challenge against the formidable Hamzah Sheeraz. He was supposed to be Sheeraz’s acid test, but it was a brutal mismatch in the ring as Williams was unable to stand up to the power of Sheeraz and was stopped in the opening stanza.
Long-time trainer Gary Lockett confirmed to Williams what he already knew in the aftermath of his defeat to Sheeraz: That his career was over. “After the Sheeraz fight, Liam and I were in the ring and he said to me, ‘I’m done Gar, aren’t I? I can’t take shots to the head anymore,'” Lockett told BBC Sport.
And so, fully aware of the risks of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) from boxing, which can lead to dementia, Williams decided to hang up the gloves while he can still get out of the sport relatively safely.
“The risk are just too great,” he said. “Some hits you can’t come back from.”
