Читать книгу Greatest Ever Boxing Workouts - including Mike Tyson, Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather, Roberto Duran - Gary Todd - Страница 14
ОглавлениеCountry: England
Date of birth: 13 July 1973
Wins: 41 (31 KOs)
Losses: eight
British and Commonwealth Heavyweight Champion
WBO Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion
WBU International Heavyweight Champion
If any boxer ever deserved to win the Heavyweight Championship of the World, it was Danny Williams. The word that best describes him as a fighter is ‘courageous’. This courage has taken him through his 49-fight career, and may hopefully see him get another crack at the heavyweight title.
When motivated, Williams is a very hard man to beat. In 2000, he fought Mark Potter for the British and Commonwealth titles, in London; it was a fight I’ll never forget. Williams dislocated his right shoulder early on and was clearly in a lot of pain, but he fought on with one arm, through the pain barrier, unbelievably stopping Potter with a crunching left uppercut in the seventh round. What a performance! What heart!
Fast forward to July 2004. Williams was matched to fight Mike Tyson, and many thought he’d be the proverbial lamb to the slaughter. Me, I picked Danny to beat Tyson in the fourth round. I remember people saying I was crazy, but all I could remember was the Potter fight in 2000.
Tyson, as expected, threw some huge, crunching ‘vintage’ shots from days gone by that bounced off Williams’ head and body, hurting him, even staggering him. But he took them all and came back with some of his own, to eventually hammer Tyson to the floor. ‘Iron Mike’ couldn’t get up, didn’t want to get up. He’d taken enough from the man from Brixton.
Danny Williams had fought with heart to beat ‘the baddest man on the planet’. He was now a household name in Britain and everyone wanted to talk to him. More importantly for Williams, his win over Tyson got him a shot at the world title.
With confidence soaring and expectations high, Danny and his longtime trainer, Jimmy McDonnell, travelled to New York to work harder than they had ever worked before. Williams was to challenge the huge Ukranian Vitali Klitschko for his WBC belt, and many thought he stood a great chance.
It was another fight I will never forget. It was the heaviest combined weight of two boxers in a world title fight ever, and the ring was straining to hold them both. Williams looked heavy – too heavy. Klitschko was so devastatingly powerful, rocking Williams to his boots almost every time he landed a punch, that I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The Brixton man kept getting up, only to be knocked down again. He was badly beaten, and many who fell to the behemoth champion never got up to have another go – but Danny Williams did. Again, what heart!
Since that night in Vegas, Williams had established himself as the number one heavyweight in Britain, beating Sydney 2000 Olympic Super Heavyweight gold medallist Audley Harrison in the ‘Battle of Britain’ grudge match. He also went to war with the former kick-boxer Matt Skelton, beating him on a gruelling roughhouse points decision, then fought him again in July 2006. This time he lost his title to Skelton on points over 12 rounds. He’d once again made the mistake of going into a fight too heavy, at 288 pounds.
Coming off the loss to Skelton, Williams fought Audley Harrison in a rematch which should never have happened. Harrison knocked him out in three rounds. From thereon in, the man from Brixton has had a mixed bag of highs – winning the British title – and lows – being knocked out by Albert Sosnowski in eight rounds in 2008, also losing early to unknown Carl Baker in the popular Prizefighter competition.
When I think of Danny Williams, I have my own memories of him in training with Jim McDonnell. It was an awesome sight to behold a man of his size at work. I remember him eating three steak dinners while I was interviewing him in his hotel room in Manchester. I remember him against Tyson and Klitschko, but most of all I remember his brave fighting heart.
DANNY WILLIAMS’ TYPICAL DAY
What time do you get up in the morning to run? 5:00am. I pray, then I go and wake up Jimmy, then we run.
Do you stretch before you run? No.
How far do you run? Usually, around one hour. (I do sprint work three times a week – 100 metres, 200 metres, 400 metres, 800 metres, 1000 metres.)
After running, what do you do? Stretching, shower, then breakfast.
What do you have for breakfast? Oats, scrambled eggs, toast and orange juice.
What time do you go to the gym? 3:00pm.
What time do you finish in the gym? 6:00pm.
What do you do after training? I watch tapes of the guy I’m fighting, and we discuss the fight, then I do neck exercises, pushups and sit-ups.
What do you have for your dinner? Rice, chicken, yams, dumplings.
Do you have any hobbies or interests? I like going on holidays and spending time with my family.
What time do you go to bed? 11:00pm.
What is your favourite exercise in the gym? forget that ever-so-brutal and painful
PUSHUPS: work back from ten down to one, then back up from one up to ten.
SQUATS: do the same sequence, doing squats.
PUSHUPS: work down from 50, then 40, 30, 20, ten.
SQUAT THRUSTS: do the same sequence, doing squat thrusts.
How many days do you train? Six days.
Did you have a job? Yes, I worked in Topman [men’s clothing store].
DANNY WILLIAMS’ WORKOUT
LIGHT STRETCHING: ten minutes.
GO TO THE PARK, STRAP ON MY HARNESS: [Danny has a harness on which he hangs a rubber tyre, and he sprints around the park pulling the tyre] 400 metres.
SHADOWBOX: one minute.
HARNESS BACK ON AND RUN AGAIN: 400 metres x 12.
GO INTO THE GYM
SHADOWBOXING: ten minutes. (All exercises have 30-second breaks only, after the ten minutes are up on the clock.)
HEAVY BAG: ten minutes.
FOCUS PADS: ten minutes.
BAG WORK: (floor to ceiling, and speedball) ten minutes.
SKIPPING: ten minutes.
CIRCUIT TRAINING: repetitions of ten x three
circuits:
pushups x ten
squats x ten
burpees x ten
star jumps x ten
clap-hands pushups x ten
squats x ten
situps x ten
running on spot – ten seconds
knees-up x ten
pushups x ten
SHOWER, THEN REST.
