Ike Williams

Ike Williams
Data
Birth Name	Isaiah Williams
Weight class	lightweight
nationality	US-american
birthday	February 2, 1923
place of birth	Brunswick
Date of death	5th September 1994
Place of death	los Angeles
style	Left delivery
size	1.75 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	157
Victories	128
Knockout victories	61
Defeats	24
draw	5

Ike Williams (born February 2, 1923 in Brunswick , Georgia , † September 5, 1994 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American boxer .

Williams, an unconditional attack boxer with a pronounced punch and stylistically comparable to Roberto Durán , was a black lightweight boxer of the post-war period. But he also fought in his career against welterweights like George Costner, Johnny Brannon and especially Kid Gavilán .

He turned pro in 1940, but remained undefeated in 1942 and 1943 after a few early career defeats.

In 1944 he met one of his two arch rivals, the classic counter boxer Bob Montgomery , who completely dominated against him and won by knockout in the twelfth round. Even with the comparatively unknown Willie Joyce, his feared opponent, he always had his problems. He lost three out of four of their fights.

In 1945 he won the NBA world title by knocking out Juan Zurita. He knocked out the Mexican Enrique Bolanos three times. As the undisputed lightweight world champion, he was not recognized until after the knockout victory against NYSAC -Champ Montgomery in the rematch in August 1947.

On his second big rival Beau Jack , who also came from Georgia, he met for the first time in 1948 and won by technical knockout in the sixth round. In 1948 he was also able to beat the Cuban welterweight Gavilán in the first meeting, even had him on the ground, but he lost two more fights against him.

In 1951 he was defeated in the title fight Jimmy Carter. He testified before the Senate in 1960 that although he had been offered a bribe to lose (as in the rematch against Gavilán, which he also lost), he had refused and lost regularly. On the other hand, he stated that the knockout loss against Chuck Davey was fake.

After a draw and knockout against Beau Jack in his last fight, he ended his career in 1955.

Since Williams was managed by Mafioso Frank "Blinky" Palermo from the mid-1940s, there is a question mark about his success. The Ring Magazine still rated him as the fifth best lightweight of all time. In 1990 Williams was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame .

Web links

• Ike Williams in the BoxRec database
• Ike Williams in the Hall of Fame (English)