ORLANDO, Fla. – Austin “Ammo” Williams knew going in that his fight with Patrice Volny was going to be a tough, grueling battle, and so it proved. Volny, despite being a little-known late starter who didn’t turn pro until he was 26, provided a strong, resilient challenge over 12 middleweight rounds, forcing Williams to work hard to win by unanimous decision here at the Caribe Royale Resort on Saturday night.
Williams, 18-1 (10 KOs), began the contest on the front foot, jabbing Canada’s Volny to the body as he circled behind a high guard, leaving Texas’ Williams looking for a way through. In the early going, Volny, 19-2 (13 KOs), wasn’t doing a great deal, but his long arms and high guard kept both body and head well covered and posed a puzzle that Williams at times struggled to solve.
By Round 3, Volny, of Montreal, was beginning to warm up. Now he was the one moving forward and letting his long jab go as Williams now sought to maintain the ideal distance and find an opportunity to counter. A straight right landed for Volny in the fourth but provided an opening for Williams to respond with a counter left. A lot of Williams’ punches were landing on Volny’s gloves, but at least he was throwing punches, allowing him to seemingly build an early lead on the scorecard.
In the fifth, however, a short right hand landed on the inside for Volny. Williams circled, moving constantly, looking for an angle of attack, as Volny calmly marched forward behind his guard, sticking his jab in Williams’ face. A wild left from Williams missed Volny by a mile, leaving Williams off-balance and allowing Volny to score with a 1-2 combination.
Even as Volny slowly turned up the pressure, Williams possessed a clear advantage in hand speed and punch output, which enabled him to counter a slow Volny right with a sharp left hand that landed cleanly and led to a series of combinations that pushed Volny backward.
By the seventh, Volny’s jab was starting to find its mark with greater authority, to Williams’ apparent discomfort, and in the eighth, sensing that Volny was finding his groove, Williams came out of the corner with greater purpose. He sought to keep his foe on the back foot with a steady fusillade of combinations, but whereas earlier Volny had been covering up when Williams attacked, now he was punching with him – and his heavy hands were clearly taking a toll on the Texan and forcing him to dig deep.
A left hand from Volny in Round 9 was met with a counter combination from Williams, but Volny was now consistently the one backing up Williams. A long right hand landed from Volny, who appeared to be slowly growing in strength as the contest unfolded. A short right uppercut from Volny as Williams wound up to throw his left was probably the Quebecer’s cleanest blow of the evening.
After an energetic exchange of ideas in the corner with trainer Kevin Cunningham, Williams emerged for the 10th seemingly determined to will himself over the line. He began torquing his punches with greater purpose, trying everything he could think of to break through Volny’s defense. A clean left hook from Volny at the end of the 11th showed that he was very much still in the contest, but Williams probably eked out a closing round in which both men were clearly fatigued.
It was a difficult fight to score, but even so, the first scorecard of 118-110 was surely far too wide. Two others, 116-112 and 115-113, were much more representative of what had unfolded in the ring, and although Volny left the ring rapidly in apparent disgust, Williams was understandably ebullient.
“This is what we trained for, tough guys who come to win,” he said afterward. “I came to beat him strategically. He was very smart. I had to lean on my experience. Guys with a high guard, they have the ability to lean back, so sometimes you try to press them and they take a step back and then they can throw even bigger punches. Kevin Cunningham told me to keep pushing him back. If he hadn’t told me that, I would have lost that fight. I can’t thank my coach enough. He’s the reason I won that fight.”
Kieran Mulvaney has written, broadcast and podcast about boxing for HBO, Showtime, ESPN and Reuters, among other outlets. He presently co-hosts the “Fighter Health Podcast” with Dr. Margaret Goodman. He also writes regularly for National Geographic, has written several books on the Arctic and Antarctic, and is at his happiest hanging out with wild polar bears. His website is www.kieranmulvaney.com.