Ricardo Williams, Jr. is a professional boxer. Williams won a Light Welterweight Silver Medal

Olympic medalists in boxing

This is the complete list of Olympic medalists in boxing from 1904 to 2008.-Light flyweight:*1968 - : up to 48 kg.-Flyweight:*1904: up to 105 lb *1920-1936: up to 112 lb *1948-1964: up to 51 kg...

 at the 2000 Olympic Games, and turned pro in the following year and was immediately dubbed as a future star in the sport and the best fighter to come out of the 2000 games.

Amateur career

Williams had a stellar amateur career. His highlights include:

• 1998 United States Amateur Light welterweight champion
• 1998 National Golden Gloves Light welterweight champion.
• 1999 United States Amateur Light welterweight champion
• Represented the United States as a Light welterweight at the 2000 Sydney Olympic games, winning a silver medal. His results were:
  • Defeated Henry Collins
    Henry Collins (boxer)
    Henry Collins is a former light welterweight boxer from Australia, who represented his native country at the 2000 Summer Olympics...
    
     (Australia) RSC 4
  • Defeated Ajose Olusegun
    Ajose Olusegun
    Ajose Olusegun is a Nigerian-born British professional boxer. He competed for Nigeria at the 2000 Sydney Olympics Games reaching the 2nd round. As a professional he is unbeaten and is the former British and current Commonwealth light welterweight champion....
    
     (Nigeria) RSC 4
  • Defeated Aleksandr Leonov
    Aleksandr Leonov
    Aleksandr Leonov is a boxer from Russia, who competed for his native country at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.Leonov is best known for winning the gold medal at 2000 European Amateur Boxing Championships in the Men's Light-Welterweight division. In the final he defeated Bulgaria's...
    
     (Russia) 17-12
  • Defeated Diógenes Luña
    Diógenes Luna
    Diógenes Luña Martínez is a boxer from Cuba, who won the bronze medal in the light welterweight division at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. In the semifinals he was defeated by eventual runner-up Ricardo Williams from the United States...
    
     (Cuba) 42-41
  • Lost to Mohamad Abdulaev (Uzbekistan) 20-27

Pro career

Known as "Slicky Ricky", Williams was an extremely talented fighter with power in both fists, but quickly become known for his uninspired performances as a pro. Two years after turning pro, Williams tendency to undertrain hurt him severely, as he dropped a unanimous decision to unheralded Juan Valenzuela. The following year, fighting 11 pounds higher than when he had turned pro, Williams turned in yet another disappointing performance against journeyman Manning Galloway

Manning Galloway

Manning Galloway is an American boxer.Galloway's greatest fights were against Gert Bo Jacobsen which were all fought in Randers Hallen, Randers, Denmark. The first fight Manning beat Jacobsen, Jacobsen lost due to a corner retirement. The second fight was a no contest. Jacobsen finally got the...

, and lost a split decision.

Troubles outside the ring

Rather than going on to win the expected title belt, in 2005 Williams had a serious run in with the law which brought any title dreams crashing down. He was sentenced to three years in prison for his part in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine shipped to Cincinnati via FedEx

FedEx

FedEx Corporation , originally known as FDX Corporation, is a logistics services company, based in the United States with headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee...

.
This charge was a crushing blow to Cincinnati sports fans, who recently had another boxing titlist and former Olympian, Tim Austin

Tim Austin

Timothy Austin is a professional boxer from the United States. He was nicknamed the "Cincinnati Kid".- Amateur accomplishments :*1990 National Golden Gloves flyweight champion...

, charged with serious crimes.

Return to boxing

After serving 31 months of his sentence, Williams was released from prison and resumed his boxing training. In his first fight since his release, in June 2008 he stopped Sebastian Hamel after just 91 seconds of a welterweight

Welterweight

Welterweight is a weight class division in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like kickboxing, taekwondo and mixed martial arts also began to use it for their own weight division system...

 bout. He has won three other fights since then, including a January 2009 victory against Doel Carrasquillo.

External links