By Nate Anderson: Hard-punching British heavyweight Danny Williams (39-6, 31 KOs) returns to the ring tonight after only two months since his highly exciting controversial bout with Russian Konstantin Airich on May 30th in Spain. Williams, 35, will be facing John McDermott (25-3, 16 KOs) for the BBBofC British heavyweight title at the Goresbrook Leisure Centre, Dagenham, in Essex.

This is a fight that is almost guaranteed to end in an early knockout one way or another, for both fighters like to slug it out early in their fights, although McDermott, 28, the more technical of the two fighters, has the ability to box when he wants to. In two out of his last three fights, Williams has been hurt early on in his fights with Oleg Platov and Airich, but both times he came roaring back to score impressive knockouts. Williams isn’t likely going to change his brawling style against McDermott tonight, so one could expect another early knockout, whether that be Williams or McDermott. As usual, Williams will be coming into the bout in his mid 260s, which is a good weight for him, since he previously defeated Mike Tyson at that weight four years ago in July 2004.

If successful tonight, Williams is hoping to use this win over McDermott as a springboard for a possible title bout against WBC heavyweight champion Samuel Peter, although before that can happen, Williams will have to first be pushed up in the rankings so that he’s at least in the top 15. Currently, he’s not ranked in the top 15 in any of the alphabet groups in the heavyweight division. Perhaps this is nothing more than a pipe dream for Williams at this point, for Peter has a dangerous heavyweight match coming up for him in October against former champion Vitali Klitschko, and there is no guarantee that Peter will be able to get by that fight with his title still with him.

Klitschko, 37, has previously beaten Williams in a savage 8th round TKO in December 2004, knocking Williams down four times in the fight. It’s doubtful that Vitali would want to waste time going over old ground, should he win the WBC title, because he’ll be wanting to make the most significant fights possible, against only the top of the division, not the bottom dwellers like Williams. Obviously, Williams must hope that Peter can somehow win, because he’d likely be interested in taking on a lower level guy like Williams after what will likely be a tough fight against Vitali.

For the most part, Williams looked good in his last fight against Airich, knocking him down 5th and 6th. However, Williams was hurt on a number of occasions in the bout, receiving two standing eight counts in the 3rd round and was knocked down in the 4th. Without the standing eight counts, it’s unclear whether a badly hurt Williams would have survived the 3rd round. He took quite a few heavy right hands from Airich and looked to be on the verge of being knocked out. Williams, however, has always had good recuperative powers, and with the standing eight counts he was able to stay in the fight long enough to batter Airich in the 5th and 6th rounds with huge shots to the head.

In the 7th rounds, Williams came out strong and unloaded on a tired-looking Airich with a rain of big shots with both hands, throwing one after another and backing Airich up to the ropes. Finally, Airich’s corner threw in the towel rather than let him take more punishment, which almost surely would have ended with him on the canvas if the fight had been allowed to continue for a little while longer.

As many problems as Williams has had in recent years with losses to Audley Harrison, Michael Sprott, Matt Skelton and Klitschko, he still remains a huge threat to any of the heavyweight champions in the division, in particular the soft-chinned Wladimir Klitschko. When Williams has his hand on straight, there’s perhaps no better slugger in the division that can match him for brute force. When he’s throwing punches in combinations and coming forward, he’s the best there is. The problem, however, is that he doesn’t always come into his bouts with an aggressive attitude like he showed against Tyson, Platov and Airich. Because of that, he’s sometimes beaten by fighters that are a class below him in talent and ability.

I doubt that will happen tonight against McDermott. Williams is a lot better than him in every way, whether it be raw punching power or boxing ability. This won’t be the type of fight that Williams come in looking scared like he did in his past losses. Look for an early knockout, probably in the 2nd or 3rd round with Williams totally destroying a badly over matched McDermott.