Lewis Williams will never regret giving up his Olympic dream in his father’s final days.
The 6ft 7in heavyweight won gold at the Commonwealth Games in 2022 and hung the medal around the neck of a proud Bob, who had just come out of hospital.
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25-year-old Williams seemed certain to be selected for the Paris Olympics, but last year her hero’s health suddenly deteriorated, so she decided not to participate in some important tournaments and decided to stay at home and sleep next to her father, after which her father passed away.
Now Williams will be cheering on his replacement Pat Brown and the rest of his Team GB teammates, knowing they made the right decision.
“I had a few injuries after the Commonwealths but I recovered for the European qualifiers,” he said.
“There was another tournament around Christmas but my dad got very ill and his condition got worse.
“Luckily, one of the nurses working at the hospice had a background in boxing and knew what I was going through.
“He pulled me aside and said time was running out. He didn’t tell me to quit the tournament, but he was honest about what was happening.
“So I withdrew from the tournament and stayed at home with him. My sister and I would take shifts to sleep next to him as we never wanted him to be alone.
“It was a bit of a sad Christmas for us but I’m glad I did it.
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“It was very hard for me to go through all of that, but I know if I was away from training or sparring after he left I would have been in a much worse situation.
“Boxing rules your life, you miss many birthdays, weddings and funerals, training is everything.
“But that was a time when I stepped back … and I wouldn’t change it.
“I am upset about not being able to go to the Olympics, but if I had gone to all the tournaments and missed seeing my father die, I would have cursed myself for that all my life.
“No matter what it cost me, I did the right thing.”
Williams will now turn professional and has offered to fight Oleksandr Usyk ahead of his clash with Tyson Fury on December 21.
I withdrew from the tournament and started staying at home with him. My sister and I used to sleep next to him because we never wanted him to be alone.
Lewis Williams
The Ukrainian’s London 2012 gold medal went into his father’s coffin and Usyk says his dad appears to him in his dreams before big matches.
Leamington-born Williams said: “It’s great to know that Usyk has his dad guiding him.”
“I struggled with that for quite a while. Every time I went down to Sheffield for training, I would hug him and say goodbye and tell him I’d be back on Thursday.
“But I always had it in the back of my mind that this might be the last time I’d see him, so every goodbye was emotional.”
“I made sure that any chance we got to spend time together, we did something nice, whether it was going for a coffee, having a meal or going fishing.
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“I’m glad I got to spend that time with him. I was able to give him the proper time because I knew it was precious and was coming to an end.
“Of course it was a horrible time but we spent it together as best we could.”
