WILLIAMS AIMS TO WIN WBC SILVER AT THE 02
On a night dominated by two heavyweight clashes, British Middleweight champ Liam Williams is looking to extend his current belt collection as he takes on Algerian Karim Achour for the WBC Silver Middleweight Title.
A fight that wouldn’t do the Welshman’s ranking with the WBC any harm, Achour may be unknown to the vast majority of British Boxing public but he should not be dismissed at all by Williams who destroyed former English champion Joe Mullender earlier this year.
Achour who has a only lost one fight in the last 6 years that being against world level fighter David Lemieux, and has never been stopped as a professional. Other notable career points include winning the EBU European Middleweight Title in 2015 on home soil & going the distance against an undefeated Martin Murray back in 2012.
Perhaps on paper with 5 losses, 3 draws and a very low KO percentage some may write Achour off completely against Williams who has impressed ever since losing to Liam Smith in November 2017.
However, despite a fantastic performance to win the British title against Mark Heffron late last year and falling narrowly against Liam Smith for two very different reasons, Williams must continue to win if he wants to keep his dream of fighting for a world title alive.
Regardless of being in a top class division when it comes to world champions with the likes of Canelo Alvarez, Demetrius Andrade & Jermall Charlo (who is Williams’ most likely opponent at that level).
Admittedly in a tough decision Williams has stated his desire to fight the best and was quoted recently confirming ‘Everybody who knows me knows that I couldn’t give a s*** who I fight, I’m game.
Judging from the above statement, Williams may not plan on spending too much time on defending his British title perhaps due to a limited domestic scene as well as the level of his aspirations.
Although Achour is a stern test that Williams must complete on his route to a world title shot, perhaps the fact that the Welshman’s fight is on the undercard of a British heavyweight dust-up and thus going under the radar isn’t necessarily a bad thing as future nights in the spotlight await ‘The Machine’.