Puncher from the Past: Cleveland Williams

CLEVELAND (BIG CAT) WILLIAMS

Born 30 June 1933 Griffin Georgia, USA

Died 11 September 1999 Houston at the age of 66

Record: 97 Fights##, 82 Wins (62 by KO/TKO) 13 losses (8 by KO/TKO), 2 Draws.

## Williams said he had boxed in Georgia from the age of 14 as he was big enough to pass for 18. He stated he had a 4-1-1 record in professional fights in Georgia before his age was discovered and he was suspended. He resumed his career when he was 18. Box Rec’s figures include two wins and a draw in Georgia in 1949 one when he was 15, one on his sixteenth birthday and one in November 1949. Missing are two wins and one loss from the claimed 4-1-1 from Williams and the addition of those would make his record 99 wins 14 losses 2 draws but due to the lack of any information on those 3 missing fights I will stick with the Box Rec figures.

Beat: John Holman, Frankie Daniels (twice), Dick Richardson, Curly Lee, Wayne Bethea, Alex Miteff, Ernie Terrell**, Alonzo Johnson, Billy Daniels (twice), Kirk Barrow, Roger Rischer, Sonny Banks, Tod Herring, Roberto Davila (twice), Terry Daniels*,

Lost to: Bob Satterfield, Sonny Liston** (twice), Ernie Terrell**, Muhammad Ali**, Bob Cleroux, Al Jones, Mac Foster (twice), Alvin Lewis, Jack O’Halloran, George Chuvalo*,

Drew with: Eddie Machen*,

** Title holder

* Title challenger

On reaching the age of 18 Williams moved to Florida and resumed his career with a win on a second round knockout in December 1951.

-1952  Williams had 20 fights winning them all and won the last 17 of those 20 fights by KO/TKO

– 1953 He had 11 fights going 10-1 being floored twice and losing on points over four rounds to Sylvester Jones snapping his unbeaten run at 31 fights.

–1954 Williams won two fights and in June came in as a late substitute and was knocked out by Bob Satterfield.  After the fight Williams was drafted into the US Army and did not fight again until June 1956. He then won his next eight fights.

–1958 March Williams had his first fight outside of the USA when he beat Welsh heavyweight Dick Richardson who was disqualified for a butt in the fourth round.

1959 April Williams was floored twice and stopped in three rounds by Sonny Liston. Their respective records were Williams 47-2-1 and Liston 23-1. A win could have landed Williams a shot at Floyd Patterson for the world title instead in June Patterson fought Ingemar Johansson and was stopped in three rounds so Williams would have had a punchers chance if he had landed a shot at Patterson.

1960 March Williams fought Liston again and was stopped in two rounds.

1960-1964 Williams had 18 bouts during this period and was 16-1-1 including a stoppage win and a split decision loss against Ernie Terrell and a draw with Eddie Machen.

In November 1964 the WBA stripped Muhammad Ali of their title for signing for a rematch with Sonny Liston. Williams and Terrell were scheduled to fight for the vacant WBA title in January 1965. On 28 November 1964 Williams was shot and wounded by a police officer in Houston. Williams underwent four operations over the next seven months for colon damage and an injured right kidney, which was removed in June 1965. Doctors did not take out the bullet, which had broken his right hip joint and caused partial paralysis of some hip muscles and was lodged against his hip

–1966 February Williams returned to the ring and scored four wins. November 14th Williams, in front of a crowd of over 35,000 in Houston (minus a kidney but plus a bullet) was outclassed and stopped in three rounds by Muhammad Ali in a challenge for the WBC title. Williams announced his retirement after this fight. He was inactive in 1967.

–1968- 1972 He continued to compete against many of the best heavyweights around but was a modest 13-7 over his last 20 fights before retiring in October 1972 having won his three fights that year. The first of those fights was against Terry Daniels who had a 28-5-1 record and had fought Joe Frazier for the WBA and WBC titles just four months earlier

Ignoring his under-age fights Williams had a 21-year career fighting the top heavyweights around.

Notes

-At the age of 13 Williams began work at a paper mill felling trees and loading pulp. By the age of fourteen he was boxing inspired by Joe Louis.

-After being drafted in 1954 Williams went AWOL and returned to boxing. He used an assumed name when he beat Johnny Hollins in August 1956 but he was recognised and spent the rest of his army service in the brig doing hard labour.

-Williams was to have fought a return with Dick Richardson in July 1958 but Williams withdrew on the day of the fight claiming he had received “A message from above” saying he should not go through with the fight and he was then banned by the British Boxing Board of Control.

-The 1964 shooting incident came about when Williams was stopped by a patrolman who stated Williams had been driving erratically and was suspected of being drunk. The patrolman put Williams in the front passenger seat of his police car to transport him to the police station. Williams opened the car door whilst the car was still moving and attempted to get out of the car. The Patrolman stopped the car and attempted to draw his gun. He asserted that Williams had struck him  repeatedly whist he was struggling to draw his gun and in a struggle for the gun Williams was shot in the lower abdomen at close range. The bullet passed through his intestines and lodged against his right hip. Williams underwent four operations and lost almost 60lbs in weight. After his release from the hospital Williams was charged with driving whilst intoxicated and assaulting a police officer.

– In February 1966 when Williams returned to the ring for the first time since the shooting the Houston Post reported that he was given a ten-minute standing ovation which only ended when Williams asked that it stop so that his fight with Ben Black could commence. Williams knocked Black out in the first round. The Post described it as  “the greatest single ovation ever paid to one man in Houston athletics.”

– Williams often led a turbulent life outside of the ring. In May 1965 his wife called the police saying Williams had threatened her with a gun and he was charged with carrying a pistol. In August he was arrested and charged with driving whilst intoxicated, assault of a police officer and carrying a pistol and was given three concurrent 30-day sentences.  The most bizarre incident in 1959 saw him assault his girlfriend with a meat clever. She was hospitalised but refused to press charges. Sometime later Williams went to the police and asked for his meat cleaver back!

-Williams’ second kidney was removed in 1998

-Williams was knocked down by a car on 3 September 1999 when crossing the road after a dialysis session  and died on 11 September from his injuries at the age of 66.

-Unfortunately for many boxing fans the only time they will have seen action film of Williams was in his fight against Muhammad Ali. In that fight a magically magnificent young Ali dazzled and destroyed an elderly shell of the fighter who had been Williams. At the time of the Ali fight Williams had been a pro for 17 years and had 76 fights and just two years before facing Ali he had a kidney and some of his intestines removed, had a bullet lodged against his hip and had reportedly died four times on the operating table. Even at his best Williams would not have beaten the 1966 Ali but to judge Williams on the basis of the Williams seen in that 1966 fight would be a serious injustice to one of the hardest punchers ever to pull on a glove as shown below:

-In 1998 The Ring ranked Williams the 31^st greatest heavyweight of all-time and in 2003 as the 49th greatest puncher of all time and he was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame (not the International Boxing Hall Of Fame) in 1997.

-When Sonny Liston and Geore Foreman were asked who hit them the hardest they both replied Cleveland Williams.