I’ll stop Williams if he dare take me on
Leon Williams, the new champion of the British cruiserweight title following a tight distance fight with erstwhile belt holder Rob Norton, is undeserving of the accolade and produced a “pathetic” performance according to undefeated 22-year-old Matty Askin. The Assassin has Leon in his sights, believes he is the better cruiser, claimed he will easily out-gun Williams before calling him out if he dares to accept the challenge…
Since 2008, the 200lb weight class on the domestic scene has been overlooked due to a player perceived to be a perpetual spoiler – Norton, who laid claim to ownership of the Lonsdale title since his decisioning of Micky Steeds. On October 21, a third successful defence of the crown would see the southpaw win the belt outright, however, he succumbed to a narrow points loss to Williams (9-3-0, 4ko).
Leon found Norton’s portside posturing impossible to circumvent during the opening swordsmanship and the defending champion built up an early lead, something that perhaps balanced out as the contest grew into a distance fight as Williams increased his work-rate and began to accumulate rounds due to out-punching Norton.
Regardless of Williams’ enhanced tempo in the second half of the bout, it was arguably still too little to salvage the main event of the York Hall card – a fact not lost on Britain’s most exciting cruiserweight Askin, who brandished the bout: “One of the worst British title fights going.”
A physically-impressive prizefighter, Askin (11-0-0, 7ko) stands at 6’4 and has a 77′ wingspan. Having blasted through a plethora of domestic-level pugilists, Askin was charged with defeating his own awkward spoiler in his most recent fight; an August test at the Tower Circus in his home town of Blackpool against Juan Manuel Garay. Askin emerged with a thrilling fourth round knockout having successfully broken the unorthodox Argentine down before laying him out on the canvas and enhancing his own reputation further.
“I thought Norton did enough to win,” said Askin, offering his assessment of the Norton and Williams scrap, before adding: “Williams was pathetic.”
Askin is next in action on November 12 at the Sports Centre in Oldham providing the chief support in a Hatton Promotions event that is headlined by a 12-round welterweight dust-up between Denton Vassell and Samuel Colomban. Askin, though, is more than ready to star in his own show and has called out Williams to provide him with a dance partner once he has navigated his way through his November test.
“I’ll beat williams inside the distance if he dare to take me on,” concluded the prospect in a clear statement of intent.
