British Boxing: Williams, Witter In Action Tonight At York Hall

ByRicky Jones

The long and winding career of British Heavyweight Champ Danny Williams takes another twist tonight at London’s York Hall as the 35 year old “Brixton Bomber” faces Essex based Pole Albert Sosnowski in a ten round non-title affair.

Williams, 40-6 (31), has had many ups and downs since turning pro 13 years ago and won and lost the British and Commonwealth titles numerous times but never winning the big one as failures to capture the European or a world title illustrate.

Scheduled to rematch John McDermott following their very close Brit title clash in July, Williams will instead face Sosnowski, a 29 year old campaigner originally from Warsaw who has fought the majority of his career in Great Britain.

Sosnowski, 43-2 (26), has an impressive numerical won-loss record on paper but the reality of his opposition hasn’t been much to write home about. The best wins of “The Dragon” have been against Lawrence Tuasa, Michael Holden, Colin Kenna, Miguel Alberto Pucheta and a 40 year old Orlin Norris.

Stepped up a bit at last in his most recent bout, Sosnowski lost all eight rounds against 38 year old American journeyman Zuri Lawrence in Brooklyn, NY this past August.

With Williams, it’s difficult to tell which Danny will show up but if the motivated slugger who hammered Scott Gammer last year comes to fight tonight at York Hall, Sosnowski will have a very difficult time.

Former WBC Light Welterweight Champ Junior Witter, 36-2-2 (21), is one the undercard and will see action for the first time since the wheels came off the cart against America’s Timothy Bradley in May when Witter lost his world title by split decision.

Like Williams, Witter is also a streaky fighter but it remains to be seen if he can return in good mental shape following the belting he took from Bradley, who made the Bradford slugger look bad in the highest profile bout of Witter’s career.

“The Hitter” begins his comeback against respectable competition in the form of Argentine light welter Victor Hugo Castro, 29-4 (12), who has only fought once outside his native country.