Williams’ Title Hopes On The Line: Must Beat Volny To Secure Hearn’s Middleweight Plan

Promoter Eddie Hearn wants to position Austin ‘Ammo’ Williams for a title shot at middleweight, but he must win his headliner against Patrice Volny this Saturday, March 15th. Williams (17-1, 12 KOs) and Volny (19-1, 13 KOs) meet in the 12-round main event at the Caribe Royale in Orlando, Florida. The event will be shown live on DAZN.

(Credit: Melina Pizano/Matchroom Boxing)

Hearn blames some of Williams’ past less impressive performances on his not having the ideal preparation. He’s been “indifferent” in camp and not fully “mentally” ready. His eleventh-round knockout loss to Hamzah Sheeraz last year might be what Hearn is talking about. In that fight, Ammo had Sheeraz hurt early but failed to go for the kill. Losing to a hyp job like Sheeraz was disappointing because that was a very winnable fight if Ammo had put his foot on the accelerator.

Hearn’s Vision

Volny, 35, can punch and he’s knocked out his last three opponents. If Williams can’t get him out of there, he could be at risk of being stopped for the second time. That would spoil Hearn’s plans to get him a title shot, obviously, and he might have to re-think his career objectives for him.

“Ammo’s problems in the past weren’t that he wasn’t good enough, it was that his preparation wasn’t good enough. Sometimes, he hasn’t been mentally 100% there. Sometimes his camps have been a little bit indifferent,” said Eddie Hearn to DAZN Boxing, talking about Austin ‘Ammo’ Williams’s fight against Patrice Volny this Saturday night in Orlando, Florida.

Williams, 28, has only lost once in his six-year career, but he’s not faced any killers except Sheeraz, who is deeply flawed. The other 17 guys that Ammo has fought were no names that most fans have never heard of.

“This is one of the first times that he’s had a strong, decent camp. This is a tough fight. Volny is a big guy, and he’s a serious middleweight,” said Hearn. “He’s a good fighter. The Ammo Williams story is quite incredible. I look back at his professional debut, and he was this young, excitable kid. Then you go through the list of everywhere he’s boxed and everything he’s done.”

Volny’s Threat

Volny is a real big guy. Standing next to Ammo, he looked like a super middleweight. It’s hard to believe that he’s going to make weight tomorrow because he looks huge. Williams appeared short and scrawny next to him.

“The fact that he’s still here after all those issues and problems he’d had, but you’ve got to make it count,” said Hearn about Ammo. “Stories are nice, but if you get beat, there’s only so much you can do with a story. When you compare people to Ammo, it’s a rollercoaster ride. Let’s not get it twisted into thinking it’s okay to lose. It’s never okay to lose, but you can certainly come back from it.”

There’s only so much a promoter can do, building a fighter up by telling their life story. That stuff doesn’t work with fans if the fighter fails to win. They won’t care about what a fighter has gone through in their lives to get to where they’re at. If they don’t win, fans won’t bother paying attention.

Must-win Fight

“The reality is, in this sport, if you’re not good enough, you won’t win. That’s it. If you’re not good enough, you can look yourself in the mirror. As long as you gave it everything, then you can go again,” said Hearn.

“You’ve got a lot of quality fighters, but you have a lot of fighters that haven’t got massive profiles that are looking for opportunities against good names in exciting fights,” said Hearn when asked about what possibilities are there for Austin Williams at middleweight if he’s victorious against Volny on Saturday.

“You’ve got the WBO champion [Janibek Alimkhanuly]. I think he’s going to move up at some point [to 168]. You just saw [WBC champ] Carlos Adames beat Hamzah Sheeraz. He’s a good fighter, but I wasn’t blown away by him. Then you’ve got [WBA champion Erislandy] Lara. He’s a great fighter, but he’s getting on [41 years old].

“Listen, we want to roll the dice for the world middleweight championship with Ammo Williams, but he must win on Saturday,” said Hearn.