Michael Williams Sr Details How Roy Jones Jr Cost Williams Jr a Major Opportunity
As 3kingsboxing.com reported, welterweight Michael Williams Jr (20-1, 13 KOs) had to withdraw from a scheduled February 25 fight with multiple-time world champion Adrien Broner after suffering a fractured jaw while training. At the time, Team Williams placed the blame at the feet of trainer Roy Jones Jr and said they no longer work with the Hall of Famer. Having to bow out of the fight with Broner, the Williams camp is opening up about what caused the friction with Jones.
BEING SET UP FOR THE FALL
Michael Williams Sr, the father of Williams Jr, sat down for an interview on the Marq Nash podcast. He believes his son was undermined and done wrong by Jones.
The crux of his issue stems from how the camp was going in preparation for Broner. Williams Sr disclosed that Jones called him and wanted to pull Williams Jr out of the fight because the trainer felt Williams Jr was taking too many punches in training. After further conversations between Williams Sr and Jones, Jones acknowledged that the kid looked great, offensively. Williams Jr called his dad and explained that Jones’s depiction of what was happening in camp was inaccurate.
According to Williams Jr, his son told Jones that he was ready to fight Broner. Then Williams explained that following his conversation with Jones, the trainer called for an impromptu sparring session where Williams Jr suffered the injury.
BROKEN TRUST
The father believes Jones called for that additional sparring session out of spite and was his attempt to break his son. Williams is upset at how things went down and believes Jones should have handled things differently.
“I told him, bro, because of your ego, my son is fucked up, because you should’ve just left him alone. If you didn’t want to be a part of this motherfucking fight, you should have just left Mike alone and sent him home, and we was going to continue the mission.”
LACK OF RECIPROCITY
Jones was Williams Jr’s trainer for the past five years. Williams Sr feels betrayed, believing they put their faith, time, and energy in Jones despite feeling that the Hall of Famer didn’t give his son the same commitment.
“We stayed loyal to Roy because Roy was the first person to take interest in my son. I knew he wasn’t the best motherfucking trainer. That’s why we did split training – because his strength and conditioning is trash! . . . His fighters run on their own. He don’t have no set program. Roy only do technical work, but we stood by him.
Now when my son is with him, does he learn shit? Yeah. But you need a motherfucking trainer who’s going to be there full-time!”
Williams Sr respects Jones for all that he’s done for boxing. However, their relationship is over. He understands there will be those who will side with Jones, but he left this final message about the now-former trainer of his son, Michael Williams Jr.
“Roy is a trophy trainer. Roy is a trophy trainer, a person you say, ‘this is my trainer’, and it looks good. That doesn’t make him a full, real trainer.”
