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The only people who weren’t happy after The Clash For Canterbury were the ones who had hoped to see Sonny Bill Williams get knocked out by Alipate Liava’a. Apart from them, everyone came out happy, including the critics who are not convinced with Williams’ boxing skills.
The demands of playing professional rugby have proved that it is near on impossible even for an athletic freak like Williams to have a decent training camp in the lead up to a fight.
There was no real improvement in Williams’ skill from his last fight against Scott Lewis. I’d go as far to say that if Scott Lewis had taken on Williams this time he would have won.
Even though Williams won and got through the fight unscathed I don’t think his camp would have been overly excited. You could almost hear the sigh of relief from Todd Blackadder and the All Black coaches after the final bell. There were, however, some factors that led to the lacklustre performance.
First up was the training camp that Williams had in the lead-up, complicated because of travel and rugby demands and a lack of a proper head trainer to guide SBW’s skill development. Basically, he was coached by his manager, watched videos of Roy Jones Jr for help, and had telephone advice from Mundine. In other words he didn’t have a proper camp.
Then there was the hand injury he picked up from the Reds game, and to top it off he had the flu in the week leading up to the fight. Williams is fortunate to have a good management team around him that picked an opponent that virtually was no threat to him. That made the difficulties in his camp not so crucial in the fight.
Mundine said himself that Williams can get away with this stuff at this level. If he wants to take a step up he’ll have to have a proper camp.
Sir Bob Jones’ comment about not being impressed by Williams’ boxing seemed petty, but after the fight I don’t think he would have had reason to change his mind.
Watching the fight it seems that Williams is basing his stance on Roy Jones Jr, with the low hands and head movement that is looking for an opening.
This stance also keeps his opponent just outside the pocket so that it’s harder for his opponent to connect with punches.
If they do throw punches then Williams just outstretches his arms to keep them at bay and retreats using his footwork. That’s providing that his reach is longer than his opponents. His game plan seemed to be throw a quick punch or a quick one two combo and back away.
This may sound like all boxing game plans but it lacks any methodical plan to win a fight.
Williams’ footwork also didn’t seem right at times when he threw punches, but that can also be put down to his inexperience. In a boxing sense his technique is terrible. That’s not to say its not effective. Roy Jones Jr was able to get away with bad boxing technique for years because he was so quick and powerful.
As Jones’ reflexes slowed, his bad technique was exposed, and he began to get knocked out. Someone like Bernard Hopkins, who had fundamentally good boxing technique, was able to compete well into his later years.
I have no doubt that Williams’ camp would know all too well about his shortcomings as a boxer and will be working hard to rectify them and increase his skill level. Also I think this fight would have also been a good gauge to Williams’ camp as to how to work out his fights in the future.
They will now know that his best performances will be in the off-season when he is able to have a more stable training camp.
This is not to say that Williams won’t be a success in boxing, but the Liava’a fight has shown how difficult it is to try and compete in professional rugby and boxing at the same time.
To be a world class boxer Williams will need to put as much training into his boxing as he does his rugby, which will be impossible given the demands of both.
Whatever opinion you may have of Williams and his camp, what he is doing is quite groundbreaking. Being a professional rugby player is hard enough, but to throw boxing into the mix as well is unheard of.
As a professional rugby player everything is basically mapped out for you to do because it has been done by many before. You just follow the book. With Williams he’s writing it as he goes.
There have and will be mistakes on the path that he has chosen, but you have to respect the fact that he is really pushing the boundaries of professional sport.
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