A look at Sonny Bill Williams’ career
Sonny Bill Williams from New Zealand is a rugby union player. He currently plays for Canterbury Rugby Football Union in the NPC ITM Cup and on 17 October, 2010, he was named in the All Blacks rugby team squad tour to Hong Kong and the Northern Hemisphere.
He is expected to play for the Crusaders in the upcoming super rugby competition. He is also a professional boxer, having fought a total of two matches so far.
He made his boxing debut on 27th May 2009 when he fought against Gary Gurr in Sydney. The former rugby league superstar fought Garry Gurr in the heavyweight category as part of the WBA ‘KO to Drugs’ program. The event was starring Anthony Mundine,
former rugby league footballer and an indigenous professional Australian boxer, two time super middleweight world champion, son of legendary boxer Tony Mundine and an old friend of Sonny Bill Williams.
In the week following up to the match, Gurr had caused a big commotion and expressed animosity against Williams. First, he gate crashed and tried to trash Mundine’s press conference earlier in the week. After that, at the weigh in the night before the match,
he abused and swore at Williams in front of the press. Right before the match when the two boxers climbed into the ring for the traditional pre-match stare down, Gurr had an unpleasant and aggressive exchange with Williams.
It didn’t take long for Williams to find his mark, rocking Gurr late in the first round with a big right upper cut from which Gurr never recovered. Later in the second round, the referee ended the fight by giving a TKO win to Williams after assessing that
Gurr was in no shape to fight any longer despite Gurr’s insistence that he could handle more beating from Williams.
It is probable that the entire match and Gurr’s antics were all planned in advance. Gurr’s attitude and knowing smirk lend credence to the rumour that Williams and Gurr are long time buddies, although Williams didn’t let that hold him back while he was pummelling
Gurr into oblivion.
Sonny Williams fought his second professional boxing match on 30th June 2010, again as part of the ‘KO to Drugs’ program. This time his opponent was Ryan “Hulk” Hogan. Williams knocked out Hogan in the first round 155 seconds after the start of
the match. Williams explained that his main reason for boxing is to keep himself in good shape and the match against Hogan being a good off season training. It may be safely said though, that the four month boxing training Williams went through prior to the
match must have been a better way to train rather than the actual match itself.
Currently playing for the All Blacks, an extremely competitive sports squad for which he has to be in tip top condition to remain there, Williams has faced ridicule and criticism in regards to his boxing bouts. Critics claim that by boxing in the ring, Williams
is putting his football career at risk by exposing himself to the chance of getting injured while boxing and being unable to play football for a while. While it is true that Williams can get injured in the boxing ring, it is even more likely for a footballer
to get injured during normal training and practice.
It is even more likely that the two boxing matches Williams has fought so far have simply been publicity stunts to generate more tickets and viewers for Williams rugby matches.
William’s third match of his boxing career will be on 29th January 2010 against Scott Lewis in Newcastle, Australia. He is being trained for the fight by Anthony Mundine. Scott Lewis has a record of three wins and four losses behind him, making
him a likely pushover for Williams in the ring.
The match takes place three weeks before Williams will play in the Crusaders as part of the opening Super 15 match of the super rugby season. Although his chances of injury while boxing are high, the New Zealand Rugby Union has taken that chance just to
get Williams to play with the Crusaders.
Sure to increase the number of viewers, it remains to be seen whether the Williams vs. Lewis bout will last longer than Williams’ previous two bouts or whether it will be simply another easy win for the boxer c*m rugby player.
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