Ricardo Williams Jr. (born June 25, 1981) is an American

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...

. Williams won a Light Welterweight Silver Medal at the 2000 Olympic Games, and turned pro in the following year and was immediately dubbed as a future star in the sport and the best fighter to come out of the 2000 games.

Amateur career

Williams began boxing at the age of eight, taking after his father, a

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

veteran who had over 80 amateur bouts of his own. He had a stellar amateur career. His highlights include: *1998 United States Amateur Light welterweight champion *1998 National Golden Gloves Light welterweight champion *1999 United States Amateur Light welterweight champion *Represented the United States as a Light welterweight at the 2000 Sydney Olympic games, winning a silver medal. His results were: **Defeated Henry Collins (Australia) RSC 4 **Defeated Ajose Olusegun (Nigeria) RSC 4 **Defeated

Aleksandr Leonov Aleksandr Leonov (russian: Александр Леонов; born July 17, 1978) is a boxer from Russia, who competed for his native country at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Leonov is best known for winning the gold medal at 20 ...

(Russia) 17-12 **Defeated Diógenes Luña (Cuba) 42-41 **Lost to Mohamad Abdulaev (Uzbekistan) 20-27

Professional career

Known as "Slicky Ricky", Williams was an extremely talented fighter with power in both fists, but quickly become known for his uninspired performances as a pro. Two years after turning pro, Williams tendency to undertrain hurt him severely, as he dropped a unanimous decision to unheralded Juan Valenzuela. The following year, fighting 11 pounds higher than when he had turned pro, Williams turned in yet another disappointing performance against journeyman Manning Galloway, and lost a split decision.

Troubles outside the ring

Rather than going on to win the expected title belt, in 2005 Williams had a serious run in with the law which brought any title dreams crashing down. He was sentenced to three years in prison for his part in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine shipped to Cincinnati via FedEx. This charge was a crushing blow to Cincinnati sports fans, who recently had another boxing titlist and former Olympian,

Tim Austin Timothy Austin (born April 14, 1971) is an American former professional boxer. He is now a coach at the Cincinnati Golden Gloves gym in Cincinnati. Amateur career Austin had an outstanding amateur career, compiling a record of 113-9. Amateu ...

, charged with serious crimes.

Return to boxing

After serving 31 months of his sentence, Williams was released from prison and resumed his boxing training. He won 9 in a row, beginning with a June 2008 stoppage of Sebastian Hamel in just 91 seconds of a

welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like Muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify th ...

bout,Boxer Ricardo Williams Jr Leaves Prison and Returns to the Ring
''New York Times'', February 24, 2009 before Williams faced

Carson Jones Carson Jones (born August 19, 1986) is an American professional boxer at welterweight and the former USBA welterweight champion. He is also the former NABA light-middle weight champion, the former WBC Continental Americas light-middle weight cha ...

for the USBA welterweight title. Jones knocked Williams down once in the third round and twice in the fourth before the fight was waved off by referee Steve Smoger. Williams added two more wins to his record in 2012 and another in 2014 before retiring at 22–3.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Ricardo Jr. 1981 births Winners of the United States Championship for amateur boxers Living people Boxers from Cincinnati Olympic boxers for the United States Boxers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists for the United States in boxing Light-welterweight boxers American male boxers Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics