DANNY WILLIAMS vs JOHN McDERMOTT

One of the most erratic heavyweights in history takes to the ring in Sunderland on Saturday when the enigmatic Danny Williams defends his British title in a rematch against John McDermott. The show is being televised on Sky Box Office in Britain as a lead-in to the mega fight between Manny Pacquiao and Ricky Hatton.

Last time they met, in Dagenham last July, Williams came back from a rocky fifth round to batter his way to a majority decision win. The scores would have been wider, but Williams had three points deducted for various infringements.

The rematch should have taken place last November, but McDermott pulled out due to a rib injury. Williams faced substitute Albert Sosnowski and was shockingly stopped in the eighth round.

Williams is an experienced fighter, a European championships bronze medallist in the amateurs who has fought at the highest level professionally, his greatest moment coming when he knocked out Mike Tyson in a major upset five years ago. Although Tyson was by then a fading fighter, it was a wonderful achievement by Williams to overpower the former champ in four rounds after almost getting stopped himself in the opening round.

Vitali Klitschko was far too good for him, but at least Williams survived for eight rounds and kept trying to land a big punch.

Since then, Williams has had one of those up-and-down careers. You just never know which Danny Williams is going to show up. He beat Audley Harrison but was destroyed by the Olympic gold medallist in a rematch. A surprisingly trim Williams stopped Scott Gammer in a British title fight but he came in at a whopping 288 pounds and didn’t let his hands go nearly enough in a loss to Matt Skelton. There were very wobbly moments against Oleg Platov and Konstantin Airich but Danny came back slugging — he stopped Airich and I think he would have done the same to Platov had a head clash not caused a fourth-round “no decision” ending. The fight with Sosnowski was touch and go, fortunes swaying, until Williams got caught by a big punch in the eighth and just “went”.

So, when Williams is in the ring you just cannot be sure what is going to happen. He can look tremendous or he can underperform.

McDermott, 29, is a capable boxer with a much higher level of fitness than his doughy physique suggests. Although caught cold and stopped in 79 seconds by Matt Skelton I think he is more durable than the result suggests. “Big Bad John”, as he calls himself, isn’t known as an especially hard hitter but he can punch solidly with the right hand — certainly he shook Williams badly with the uppercut last July. He didn’t have a lot of amateur experience but he won the ABA title in the super heavyweight division in his ninth bout — this set a record as no one had captured the national title after so few contests.

In the first fight with Williams, I thought that McDermott was a little too hesitant, even after having the big fifth round. He said afterwards that he had injured a rib and was in pain from round three onwards, and as problems in the rib area caused the postponement of the rematch one hopes that McDermott doesn’t have a significant weakness there. McDermott has had a good rest, though, and it was sensible of him to withdraw from the rematch instead of going into the ring and trying to fight through the pain.

Williams, meanwhile, said that the last fight was a “come down” fight for him and that he couldn’t get enthusiastic about the match. This sort of comment makes me wonder whether Williams can ever recapture his desire for success. He turns 36 in a couple of months and he has started his own plumbing company, which could be seen as a distraction.

McDermott has addressed his performance in the first contest, when he didn’t quite do enough even though Sky commentator Adam Smith and analyst Jim Watt both said they “couldn’t believe” the decision in Danny’s favour (a view most definitely shared by McDermott’s promoter, Frank Maloney). McDermott told the South London Press newspaper this week: “I didn’t think I could win. At the weigh-in I thought if I could go the distance that would be good enough. But after the fifth round I suddenly realised Danny isn’t a monster and that I could win. I’m going to have that belief from the word go this time.”

If McDermott truly believes in himself, I think he has a good chance to turn the tables on Williams.

McDermott will have to be steady and alert, use the jab, let the right hand go, and he must keep answering back whenever the champion starts to fight assertively: In the last fight, McDermott was a bit too defensive, for too long, when Williams started to put pressure on him, and Danny did some useful scoring with the jab to eke out some close rounds.

This is one of those fights where anything could happen. A sensational early KO win for Williams is quite possible, if Danny has managed to get himself motivated. Or it could be another gruelling 12-round slog, with either man capable of winning, depending on which of them can dig the deepest. A stoppage win for McDermott isn’t likely but it is a possibility considering the way Danny was wobbled in the first fight and also how he suddenly came apart against Sosnowski, who is not noted for punching power.

On paper, with all that world-class experience and his greater punching power, Williams should win, and I agree with the sports books that has to be regarded as a clear favourite. I get the sense, though, that McDermott could be in the right place at the right time, and that this time he can keep himself on the path to victory.

Heavyweights are often unpredictable, Danny Williams more than most, but I’m going to go with the younger, fresher and perhaps more focused fighter, McDermott, to box his way to an upset win on points.