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“Maybe, we’ll just have to see how it goes,” said Liam Williams when asked whether he will be his usual abrasive self when he meets Chris Eubank Jr to formally announce their December 11 clash this week. “I’m quite chilled and just looking forward to the fight but if he decides he wants to play the big man, then I’ll f—— drop him.”
The fight is just three weeks away and has British boxing salivating.
Both are strong middleweight contenders who have fought for world titles but they also do not like one another.
A couple of years ago, Eubank was asked whether he would consider fighting Williams and he said he didn’t know who the Welshman was.
Williams saw the interview.
“Of course I did,” Williams said. “He’s just full of sh!t. He’s a pretender. He just wants to make people believe that he’s at a certain level and everybody else is irrelevant and a no one, but the reality of it is he’s a clown.”
Williams has never been one to mince his words. He holds little back. Now 23-3-1, he has not boxed since a tough points loss to WBO champion Demetrius Andrade in April but he’s been in camp with trainer Dominic Ingle for several weeks.
In many ways, it’s a fresh start for Williams.
He is no longer with promoter Frank Warren and is a free agent going in to the Eubank fight, which is a home fight for him, in Cardiff, Wales, despite Birmingham being the frontrunner for a while.
“It’s a new platform for me,” the 29-year-old continued. “We’re on Sky with Wasserman and Boxxer and it’s almost like my debut again because it’s all new and exciting. I’m a free agent, so any promoters want to offer me a big signing on fee or something I’ll take it!”
He also doesn’t think Eubank is as good as Andrade.
“I definitely believe Andrade is the better fighter,” he continued. “In terms of levels, to be honest I don’t think there’s any comparison because Andrade is very well-schooled, good technical ability, he was an amateur star and in terms of levels and boxing ability I don’t think they even come close.”
But what is different to Andrade is Eubank’s aggression and style. Despite being trained by the exceptionally gifted Roy Jones, the Brighton man still likes a fight and Williams can’t see anything other than excitement when they collide in a fight being billed as the biggest all-British clash of the year.
“I think so,” he agreed. “We both have a style where we want to be involved in good fights and we can’t help but be involved in them because we are both gutsy fighters. The fans are going to be the winners.”
And by in large they will be Williams’s fans at the Motorpoint Arena on December 11 and Williams gives Eubank credit for venturing in to Wales for the fight.
“I can’t take anything away from him in that sense, not that he had much of a choice because it was stuck on him and it would never have been his first choice, you can imagine,” Williams said. “But he needed to do it and to be in a challenging fight to keep everybody happy and to keep Sky happy. They made the fight first and then they thought the only place they could play it safe and guarantee a sell-out was Wales. And that’s not because of him, it’s because of me. They know I sell a lot of tickets and I’ve got a big following. The problem with it being in London or Birmingham is them thinking it might not sell, because he hasn’t got a following in England.”
Eubank has been at the top of Williams’s wish list for years, since long before Eubank admitted to knowing who the fiery Welshman was.
“Getting this fight, I’m very motivated. I just can’t wait and I’m glad there’s only four weeks left. Can I just add for the record that him and his team can’t be the most confident because him and his team have made sure they’ve got a rematch clause in the contract. So what does that tell you? If I was going in to a fight thinking, ‘I’m going to hammer this guy and move on’ why would you worry about a rematch clause? You’d just think, ‘I’m going to smash him from pillar to post and that’s that. Job done.’”
While Eubank’s name has been mentioned along with the Canelos and Golovkins for some time, Williams wants December 11 to be his springboard back into the 160lbs elite.
“It’s a big fight for me,” he admitted. “I wouldn’t say it’s a must-win but it’s a big thing for me. In my mind I need to win this fight to move forward and if I keep saying I’m going to win a world title and everything else then realistically I do need to win this fight because I’m 29, I’ve got a couple of years left so the idea is to win this fight, move forward and challenge the big names.”