By Sean McDaniel: 38-year-old former British, Commowealth and WBO Intercontinental heavyweight champion Danny Williams (44-11, 33 KO’s) has reportedly retired from boxing shortly after losing a 2nd round TKO to Norwegian heavyweight Leif Larsen last Friday night.

At one time arguably the best heavyweight in the UK, Williams’ skills have faded in the past five years, and he’s lost 7 out of his last 16 bouts against less than impressive heavyweights in most cases. Since last year, Williams has been stopped by Dereck Chisora in two rounds, Manuel Charr in seven and Larsen in three. The writing was clearly on the wall that it was high time for Williams to pack it in.

In an interview at boxrec.com, Williams says he continued fighting because “Was for the love of my sport.” Some boxing fans were in the mind that Williams was in the need of money, which would make sense because often fighters continue to fight long after their prime when they’re in need of money and don’t have a nest egg built up from their years in the ring.

Williams says that the high point of his career was his wins over Mike Tyson and Mark Potter. However, Williams has a lot of other Impressive wins besides those, such as victories over Kali Meehan, Audley Harrison, John McDermott, Konstantin Airich, Matt Skelton, Michael Sprott, Julius Frances, Bob Mirovic, and Alfred Cole. Williams accomplished a lot during his prime and he retires with no need to hand his head down. He was an excellent fighter who fought for a world title against WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko and gave it his all in losing in 2004.

In recent years, Williams has kind of been forgotten about, as he’s been passed by with younger British heavyweights Tyson Fury, Dereck Chisora and David Price coming up the ranks.