|
|
Robert Williams
Image Descriptions: Robert 'Bobby' James Williams was born in Orange and displayed an early interest in boxing when he joined the Police Boys Club at the age of 7. He contested his first amateur event at the age of 8 and under the guidance of his father Ken went on to compete in 168 amateur fights, 155 of which were wins and 13 losses.
His young brother Gary was also an Australian amateur and professional champion. Bobby represented Australia at tournaments in New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Tahiti and New Caledonia. Some of his victories were over Australian champions as well as Olympic and Commonwealth Games representatives.
Bobby won his first State title in 1969 and he won successive State titles from then until 1977, a total of nine successive years. In 1973 he was runner up in the Pacific titles in Noumea. In the same year he lost a challenge for the Australian Bantamweight title when stopped in the second round by Joey Donovan.
1974 saw Bobby win the Australian Golden Gloves Bantamweight title and the Pacific Bantamweight title in Tahiti. Bobby stepped up to the Featherweight division in 1975 and after winning the Australian title he travelled to New Guinea where he stopped New Guinea champion Johnny Aba in two rounds.
In the Australian Championships in 1976, which were also the Olympic trials, Bobby lost a controversial bout to Greg Grogan when he was counted out while standing with his hands raised and ready to continue boxing. Bobby made the finals in 1977 but was stopped in the third round and despite offers to turn professional; he retired to pursue a career in music.
|
 |
|
