BELFAST, Northern Ireland — On December 2, Troy Williamson, the former British junior middleweight champion will take on Caoimhin Agyarko at the SSE Arena in Belfast. He is determined to show that his loss to Josh Kelly in a decision fight last year was an exception.
For almost a year now, Williamson (19-1-1, 14 KOs) has been silently reflecting about his loss. Though Williamson, 32, from England has to deal with the fact that he didn’t do himself justice, there is no shame in losing to a world-class opponent.
“It was frustrating. Very frustrating. There were things that I wanted to do that I just couldn’t,” said Troy Williamson in media reports.
“I know I was on the front foot and I forced the fight but if you look at my previous fights, that just wasn’t me in there. Kelly boxed brilliant. I won’t take anything away from him. If I was fully fit and I wasn’t carrying any injuries, then would the outcome have been different? Who knows. What I will say is that I would have given a lot better account of myself,” he added.
Williamson’s thrilling victories over Ted Cheeseman and Mason Cartwright for the British title demonstrated his brutality as a finisher, but opponents in the future will surely observe how Kelly controlled Williamson and feel compelled to employ many of the same strategies.
Caoimhin Agyarko (13-0, 7 KOs), who was first offered Williamson for the end of September, has made significant progress in this fight. Before agreeing to such a significant fight, he decided he wanted another fight with trainer Joe McNally and the opportunity to fully test out the hand he had repaired earlier in the year.
Agyarko, 27, from United Kingdom reacted against Troy Williamson’s claims that he was forced to face him on Saturday night.
“I don’t want no excuses from you on Saturday night or the day after when I win. ‘Oh, I had major surgery on my elbow. I couldn’t cope with you properly. I just had a kid and whatever else.’ There is no excuses from me,” said Agyarko in media reports.
Williamson is adamant that anyone who shows up hoping to outbox him would get a very unpleasant surprise.