SONNY BILL WILLIAMS’ training camp in Ireland paid dividends on Wednesday afternoon in Sydney (Wednesday night local time) as he blew away former AFL star Barry Hall inside a round of their ‘Turf War’ professional boxing match.
As profiled by The42 earlier this year, former two-time Rugby World Cup-winning All Black and rugby league star Williams joined forces with Limerick’s former middleweight world champion Andy Lee to prepare for today’s heavyweight contest.
Lee trained Williams in Dublin, predominantly out of Monkstown Boxing Club, before the pair travelled back to Williams’ adopted hometown of Sydney for some fine-tuning ahead of today’s bout.
The 36-year-old Williams — who dabbled in professional boxing and built a 7-0 (3KOs) record during his rugby career — took just under two minutes to dispatch the once notoriously abrasive Hall, 45, dropping the Aussie Rules legend twice before referee Les Fear called a halt to their contest.
IT'S OVER 🤯 SBW has a first-round knockout! #StanEvent #TurfWar #SBWvHall pic.twitter.com/0Wd4Ydejo7
— Stan Sport (@StanSportAU) March 23, 2022
Hall is familiar to Irish sports fans for his feisty contributions to the International Rules fixtures of 2003 and 2006, the latter series on these shores going down in infamy for both its on-field and off-field violence.
He entered the bout with a modest-looking 0-0-1 record — but that sole draw on his professional boxing debut came against the 9-0(5KOs) former NRL star Paul Gallen in November 2019.
Hall was also a standout amateur boxer in his youth and while he more than held his own at yesterday’s weigh-in, shoving his head into the face of Williams before they were separated, he had no answers for what the fresher Kiwi brought to the table in Sydney.
Williams returned to the professional boxing ring after a six-and-a-half-year absence last June but he had to survive a second-round knockdown in order to narrowly edge out 2-14(1KO) journeyman Waikato Falefehi, improving his record to 8-0 (3KOs).
His work under Irish boxing great Lee was conspicuous tonight in what was, on paper, a far more dangerous fight, and one for which Williams admitted afterwards he was “hella nervous”. He didn’t look it as he aggressively ploughed through ‘Hally’, firstly dropping the Aussie with a straight-right, left-hook combo and closing the show with another powerful straight right to improve to 9-0(4KOs).
Despite some mild animosity in the build-up, the pair of southern-hemisphere sporting greats embraced in the aftermath of their short bout, with Hall and his team joining Williams, Lee and co. for a group photo in the ring.
Speaking to The42 about his potential future in boxing back in January, Williams said: “I know my level, you know what I mean? I know my level. I’m not here saying, ‘I’m gonna be a world champion’ or whatnot. But the way the world of boxing is at the moment, there’s a lot of good fights out there for me. There’s Barry Hall next but I know in the rugby community, across rugby-playing countries, there are a few good boxers out there who are on my level.
“I feel like I want to do it for a couple of years just to scratch that itch. And if I can keep improving the way that I feel like I can under the guidance of Andy, and getting that good work in, then why not give it a good crack?
“It’s just a good way to kind of transition out of sport and it’s just a cool journey, y’know?”
Pleasure to chat to Sonny Bill Williams and Andy Lee about their working together in Dublin, how Williams' controversial move from NRL to Toulon made boxing "a necessity", and why he has abandoned a comfortable life to fight Graham Canty's mortal enemy. https://t.co/t5Pg7LUhXy
— Gavan Casey (@GavanCasey) February 1, 2022
Next up for the All Black great could be fellow former rugby league star Gallen, now 12-1-1(7KOs), but Williams was quick to stress afterwards that he first wishes to spend time with his wife and his four children.
Lee, meanwhile, has developed loftier ambitions for his fighter after working with him every day for the last two months: “I’m not blowing smoke; my ambition with Sonny is to one day fight for the heavyweight championship,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald earlier this week.
“It is well within his reach. With the progression he has made in the last six to eight weeks, the way I see him going in the future, with the right fights and the right training, he certainly has the ability.
“Is that the greatest story in sports history, if he fights for the heavyweight title? The blueprint is there.
“If Sonny wins the fight against Barry Hall — it might be a stinker of a performance and people will be, ‘You’re crazy saying that.’ Trust me, with progression and time he’ll get more comfortable in the ring. You’ll see.”
