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FORMER two-weight British champion and world title challenger Liam Williams has retired from boxing. The 32-year-old bows out with a 25-5-1 (20 KOs) record, having turned pro in 2011.
“I would have liked to have won a world title, I was a bit unfortunate I suppose that when my opportunity it came against one of the best world champions (Andrade). I think I proved in my career that I could box at a world level, but I can look back and be proud of what I have done,” Williams told BBC Sport Wales.
That referenced loss to WBO middleweight king Demetrius Andrade, which came in 2021, was a high point despite being on the wrong end of a decision. Williams came through some rocky moments out in Hollywood and gave a good account of himself.
The Andrade shot arrived off the back of a career resurgence that started with a dissection of Mark Heffron and included some impressively vicious stoppages of domestic fighters. Williams had moved up to 160 for a fresh career start, having suffered back-to-back defeats to Liam Smith in 2017. Williams was narrowly ahead in the first fight on all three cards before a bad cut ended his evening.
Following the Andrade loss things did not move as smoothly for Williams as he reached the end of his career. Nearly a year later he was dropped four times and just about made it to the final bell against Chris Eubank Jr. A couple of nondescript wins later and he was back in with fearsome prospect Hamzah Sheeraz.
As Williams would later reveal, behind-the-scenes issues around concussions had come to light. Liam was destroyed in a single round by Sheeraz and looked a shadow of his former self. Retirement, therefore, comes as little surprise.
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