By Oliver Fennell
The British heavyweight merry-go-round continues on Friday night as national champion Scott Gammer defends against Danny Williams in Neath.
The tussle for the top spot in the domestic rankings has been something of a revolving door, with Williams, Matt Skelton and Audley Harrison continually chopping and changing over the past 15 months. Michael Sprott launched his own leadership bid with his surprise knockout of Harrison two weeks ago.
While all this has been going on, Gammer acquired Lonsdale honours as a virtually unknown champion. Williams, Skelton and Harrison were arguing over the Commonwealth strap, and Sprott was campaigning on the Continent, meaning Gammer had very meagre pickings from which to build his own reputation.
He beat a Mark Krence who was coming off three consecutive defeats – including one to Gammer – for the vacant belt, and then defended against another former victim in the virtual novice Mickey Steeds. Before that, the Pembroke man’s best result had come against a 40-year-old Julius Francis who had long forgotten how to win.
So Williams – conqueror of Mike Tyson, one-time world title challenger and owner of a cabinet-load of professional honours – is by a league the best man Gammer has ever faced.
But, as with any Williams contest, a raft of questions accompanies the pre-fight analysis. Whether against rank outsiders or the world’s best, there is no such thing as a formality when the Brixton Bomber steps through the ropes.
What kind of shape will Danny be in? What will his mind-set be like? Will he even turn up on the night? (John McDermott is on the bench for just such an eventuality). And, most significantly of all, is the question the boxer asked of himself in an interview with Boxing News last week: “Am I shot?”
The evidence is there. Last time out, Williams suffered a career-worst defeat as he was hammered in three rounds by former victim Harrison. Before that, he apparently didn’t even bother to train before turning up at an embarrassing 20st 8lb and slumping to a points loss against another man he had previously bettered in Skelton.
But we have written him off prematurely before. Upset defeats to Sinan Samil Sam and Sprott were followed by his stunning knockout of Tyson and his brave WBC shot against Vitali Klitschko.
Williams took such a beating from Klitschko, he looked ripe for the taking by Harrison when they first fought, but he re-entered the world rankings by first pegging back Audley and then outscoring Skelton.
But now he seems to be on the slide again, can he surprise us all one more time?
Perhaps his most recent losses are misleading. One has to believe an in-shape Williams would have repeated his win over Skelton, and he would have acquitted himself better in the Harrison rematch had he enjoyed more than two weeks’ notice.
But still, Williams looked for all the world like a fighter who had reached the end of the road following the Audley drubbing. Demoralised and disfigured, he talked of retirement in the immediate aftermath.
It was a natural conclusion to reach, but the British Boxing Board of Control granted him a lock-in at the last chance saloon by contentiously retaining him as their mandatory contender despite the defeat by a compatriot.
So is Williams taking this fight because he genuinely wants it, or simply because it was offered to him?
If this contest was coming five or six months on from the harrowing result against Harrison, I would have fancied Danny’s chances of regaining the British belt from its unproven holder. But as it is, I don’t think the three months since the Audley rematch will be enough for him to recover physically nor steel himself mentally for another title assault.
Worryingly, the man who has too many times turned up out of shape is this time refusing to reveal the identity of his latest trainer – if indeed he has one at all. Enigmatic pre-fight talk from Williams is usually an indicator of disappointment to come. Remember the Londoner saying he was training in an oxygen tent for the Skelton re-run, and then resembling the Thames Whale come fight night?
But don’t forget, while there may be a catalogue of questions surrounding Williams, the undefeated Gammer is himself far from a known quantity. That’s not to say he’s erratic – far from it – just that he hasn’t been around for long enough, at a high enough level, to have answered the standard queries all prospects face.
Can he go 12 hard rounds in a two-way fight? Can he fight through adversity to win? Does he hit hard enough at championship level? How will his chin hold up against a world class puncher?
I feel Williams has enough left to ask him these questions, but not enough to win. He’s only 33 but probably has another half-decade of ring years on his weary body. Gammer is only three years younger but virtually starting out.
Williams will try hard – he doesn’t know how not to – but this reeks of “right time, right place” for Gammer. The champion – Wales’ first heavyweight titlist since 1983 – can earn a unanimous decision in a fight which does credit to both men.
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