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Photo © Tom Casino/ShowTime
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Last Saturday night was the heavyweight clash – literally – between Wladimir Klitschko and DaVarryl Williamson. Both men were trying to stay in heavyweight contention with an impressive win but what they and the fans received was far less. The scheduled ten round event ended with a clash of heads in the fifth round that gave a bloody Wladimir Klitschko a split technical decision win over a less than ecstatic DaVarryl Williamson, who was left pondering what he refers to as unfinished business. In the fourth round Williamson sent the Ukrainian fighter to the canvas with a counter right hand but failed to get the decision that the Colorado based fighter felt that he deserved. But with the disappointing loss Williamson feels that he still has that spark left in him to compete in the heavyweight division and hopes he will get a rematch with Klitschko, and if not he will go on and make do with the cards he was dealt. In an exclusive interview Doghouse Boxing conducted with Williamson he gives his thoughts and opinions on the Klitschko bout and what he sees for himself in the future.
Benny Henderson Jr.: Give the readers your thoughts on the Klitschko fight.
DaVarryl Williamson: You know how you get out a game plan before the fight? Sometimes in fights those types of things go right out the window. This one we were able to stay, gosh man we followed it, we were on a tight schedule almost as better as Federal Express. We fought our plan so well and everything was going exactly as we knew it would go. My coach and I along with Team Williamson, we really followed the instructions to a T.
BH: How would you grade your performance for the few rounds that you did fight?
DW: I would say a B+.
BH: Did you agree with the scoring?
DW: I agreed with one of the scorecards. [Laughs] I agreed with one judge.
BH: Do you feel that a rematch with Klitschko is important?
DW: I think at this point it is unfinished business. I think it is hard to move on with starting new business when there is old business. This is defiantly unfinished business, so I would love this opportunity again but I am not so sure that he would honor that. Maybe he saw something in me a year ago and that guy is gone who fought against Joe Mesi a year ago. As I said before he got the wrong guy at the wrong time. We were very happy with how things were, they were materializing.
BH: How would you approach the rematch if given the chance to fight Wladimir again?
DW: Obviously we would maybe do some things different, my coach and I haven’t done film study yet to watch it so it is really hard to predict or jump out there and get ahead of myself and say hey we were fighting it this way. I don’t think he can change his style very much all though I can change mine. I would say that we would fight him close to the way we fought him. He is bigger and stronger but he isn’t necessarily faster we would box him pretty much like a carbon copy of how this fight was going.
BH: This say you don’t get the rematch, where will you go from there?
DW: Well there are a couple of cards coming up in particular there is a big heavyweight card on November 13th that is a Don King show. Somehow in this business, Benny, heavyweights seem to fall out every forty to forty-five days from a card. And when you have four big fights that are on deck you have eight guys and one of those guys aren’t going to be able to make it. I’m not wishing bad luck, I am just saying that is just what happens in the business.
BH: You have watch past fights of Wladimir, and now you have fought him yourself. Do you think that Wladimir is the same guy as he was two years or was he overrated in your mind?
DW: It is hard to say because I wasn’t in the ring with him two years ago. I can only judge him on who he was a couple of days ago. I know the guy had a very good record and he was very good, but he wasn’t in there with DaVarryl Williamson. He was in there with guys like Jameel McCline or Ray Mercer who didn’t have the legs as he used to have or didn’t have the punch that I have. So it is hard to ask your self was this guy really that good. When he fought Chris Byrd he fought in Germany, so I am not sure how that goes with the preparation or food or how he was treated plays into part. Chris said that he did not want to go fight there in Germany again. You don’t know and not knowing is some of the battle. As he fought here in the states we had a chance to take a look at him and I didn’t think he has been in there with DaVarryl type caliber guys. So who knows, I don’t know if he is the same guy two years ago or four years ago, but I know I wasn’t so impressed that for sure.
BH: Looking back at the knock down, have you looked back on the tape yet and seen it?
DW: Absolutely, it was a good counter punch whether if it was off balance or not. It wasn’t even a vicious punch it was just a nice reaction counter punch right had straight to the whiskers. It caught him straight and it probably jarred him a little bit and he fell to the seat of his pants.
BH: Is there anything that you took away from this fight that might help you in the future or did you learn anything?
DW: I think that I learned that I could have taken up the space a little bit more with my jab while I was moving. Maybe after the knock down I could have used a different punch. But I this was good and I was very proud of my effort and it was awesome and it was a good experience only that the ball didn’t bounce my way. But we were in the game and in the fight and executing everything that according to plan. We were happy how everything was going we just wish it could have went one or two more rounds and went ahead and finished him off.
BH: Would you have thought a draw would have been fair?
DW: Absolutely.
BH: Is there anything that you would like to add to this interview DaVarryl or anything that you want to be said?
DW: I just want to thank again team Klitschko for taking the fight. I want to thank Showtime along with Gary Shaw and all around for making this happen. Defiantly would like to say a special hello and thank you to the fans friends and family that traveled from everywhere that come to see me and show me love. I was so pleasantly surprised that so many came out. They came from Minnesota, Arizona, Colorado, California, Michigan, Nebraska and Chicago, everywhere I have been. It is like I left a good piece of me and a good relationship with extended family and friends for them to come out and show love. I have to thank everyone, my family, my Mom and my extended Mom from Minnesota, my sisters and my cousins. I had some friends that I haven’t seen in seventeen years, he and his wife came out, it was just wonderful. I used to baby sit for a couple in Arizona, man they showed up. They refer to me as the boxing baby sitter. I just want everyone to continue to tune in and believe in me and continue to follow my career. I am very honored.
I would like to thank Kevin Mullowney for his help once again for this interview. A special thanks goes out to DaVarryl for his time and thoughts on the fight. I appreciate your dedication to the fans. For more information on DaVarryl 'Touch of Sleep' Williamson visit his website: http://www.tosboxing.com.
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© Copyright / All Rights reserved: Doghouse Boxing 1998-2004
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Interview by Benny Henderson Jr. (October 6, 2004) 
