LIAM WILLIAMS – the brilliantly brave Welsh boxer – has retired with a beautifully soft speech every fighter should read.
The 32-year-old Clydach lad suffered three defeats in his last five fights – the swansong a hard-to-watch single-round knockout to Hamzah Sheeraz.
And he has hung up his gloves without a world title but with his health intact to spend and share with his young family.
“I don’t want to box just for money and get a hit to the head you can never come back from,” he said after suffering a string of concussions.
“I’ve got a lovely family, a lovely partner.
“If I can’t enjoy my life with them because of damage to my brain, what would it be for?
“I’ve taken too much, I’ve had a long career, boxing has been all I’ve ever known.
“Heavy sparring, heavy hits, my resistance to punches is not as good and the risks are just too great.
“Some hits you can’t come back from.”
Williams was a gym-mate of Nick Blackwell, who suffered life-changing injuries in a 2016 loss to Chris Eubank Jr, so he is tragically aware of the dangers of the sport he loves.
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The former British super-welterweight champ said: “I know that boxing is brutal.
“I trust the people around me and when they are telling you it’s over, you have to listen. It was very hard to hear.
“I would have liked to have won a world title, I was a bit unfortunate that when my opportunity came it was against one of the best world champions (Demetrius 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.”
