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 fights are supervised by a regulatory auth ...

. 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 (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

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 (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 Manning Galloway (born April 27, 1960) is the former WBO welterweight champion of the world. Professional career Galloway turned professional in 1978 & compiled a record of 42–11–1 before beating Veabro Boykin to win the vacant WBO welterwei ...

, and lost a split decision.

Criminal conviction

Rather than going on to win the expected title belt, in 2005 Williams was sentenced to three years in prison for his part in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine shipped to Cincinnati via

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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 (August 19, 1986 – March 1, 2025) was an American professional boxer at welterweight and the former USBA welterweight champion, who was also the NABA light-middle weight champion, the WBC Continental Americas light-middle weight ...

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 Steve Smoger (August 15, 1943 – December 19, 2022) was an American boxing referee from Atlantic City, New Jersey. He refereed more than 200 title bouts, and was one of the more well-traveled of his profession, holding the distinction of offic ...

. 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 20th-century American sportsmen Sportspeople convicted of crimes American sportspeople convicted of crimes