You don’t have to spend much time in Austin “Ammunition” Williams’ orbit to understand why he’s a little different than everyone else.
He sat outside his home in Palm Beach, the Florida sun flickering in and out, as if hesitant, his hat turned back, cellphone in hand. When he raises his head, his gaze is pointed intensely at you—focused, deliberate—almost like his eyes are piercing the target, just like all boxers are taught how to jab.
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In a few days, the same advantage will extend north to New York.
Under the lights of Madison Square Garden, Williams (19-1, 13 KOs) will step into the Teofimo Lopez vs. Shakur Stevenson undercard knowing the stakes have never been higher. Across the ring stood Dominican champion Carlos Adams (24 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss, 18 KOs), the defending WBC middleweight champion. For the first time in his career, “Ammunition” had to fight not just for position or power, but for a world title.
“Everything is different this time,” Williams told The Uncrowded. “I’m not going to point to anything in this training camp because it’s a high point. I’ve been working with my coach Kevin [Cunningham] Specific things since I lost to Hamza [Sheeraz]honestly, that loss was the best thing that happened to me so far in my career. Everything started going well. “
In June 2024, Williams lost to England’s Sheraz by TKO in the 11th round, but subsequent wins over Gian Garrido, Patrice Volney and Ivan Vazquez gave the middleweight a chance to reach the top of the 160-pound ranks.
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“I think this is a wake-up call,” he said. “I simply wasn’t focused on boxing enough. It’s crazy looking back now because it became so clear to me. I wasn’t mature enough to understand how lucky I was to get such a huge opportunity and get signed by Matchroom. That loss made me take a step back, look at the bigger picture and think, ‘Wow, I need to learn some lessons now and realign my life.’
“So I decided to move here with my wife [lightweight Sharahya Taina Moreu] And take boxing more seriously. Now, after a game, I can immediately go back to the gym and be close to my coach. “
It’s not just the landscape around 29-year-old Williams that has changed.
Austin Williams prepares for his win over Ivan Vazquez at The Star Ford Center on July 19, 2025 in Frisco, Texas. (Photo by Melina Pisano/Getty Images)
(Melina Pisano via Getty Images)
Williams has been willing to deviate from the well-worn boxing path in order to squeeze every last ounce out of a talent that was never really in doubt. He says his body is not a fixed asset but something to be studied, tested and optimized – a tool with hidden cogs waiting to be unlocked.
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This mentality has led him down a path that most fighters would never consider, all in the name of discovering just how far his physical ceiling can be stretched.
“I tried everything — ballet, singing, dancing, performing arts,” he explains. “I can learn something different from each of them and bring that into boxing.
“Through dance and performing arts, structurally – from understanding the muscles and bones – I can see when a boxer is misaligned or imbalanced. You can see it in the hips and shoulders and where they are disconnected from the gravity of the earth. There’s a lot of work in maintaining different foot positions in ballet – first, second, third, fourth and fifth – so it was a real education and gave me a lot of insight into the human skeletal system.
“The same goes for singing. I practiced all the different breathing techniques needed to sing at a high level. In the process of learning about the larynx and larynx, I was able to listen to breathing patterns during sparring and understand when my opponent was struggling to breathe and wasn’t getting enough oxygen in their lungs. I could tell if they were hyperventilating just by the sounds coming out of their mouth.
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“For dance, rhythm is very obvious. You know, if you go to a party, listen to some music, and move to the music. In boxing, that rhythm can give your punches continuity or momentum. … A boxer who is stiff and doesn’t have a lot of movement is an easier target than one who can glide around the ring.”
It’s hard not to fall forward as Williams begins to unpack what he’s learned along the way. He speaks with the clarity of a man who has done his job – not just learned the buzzwords, but absorbed the information. His obsession with getting better inside the ropes was palpable, almost all-consuming, but it quickly became apparent that boxing wasn’t his top tier.
When it comes to his wife and daughter, his edges soften immediately.
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“Before my daughter, I couldn’t easily amplify my blessings,” he said. “My motivations and purposes were a little hazy. But now, it’s all clear. I no longer feel tired when dealing with heavy bags when I have her future to think about and fight for. Those are just motivations you don’t have before you have them.
“Having my wife in my life is a victory in itself. Because she is a veteran boxer in her own right, we can go home and talk about the little things of the day, like the nuances of sparring or the details of training.
“I have the utmost respect for her and have benefited greatly from having such a brilliant fighting mind. She is my partner in crime; if I ever get criticized or struggle one day in this sport that we are all familiar with, she will be my safety net when I get home.”
If Williams wants to realize his dream on Saturday night, he’ll have to get past Adames – only Patrick Teixeira has done that in the pro ranks, albeit as a junior welterweight.
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Adams, 31, is not a fighter who will fit in easily. He meets you head-on, chest first, his pace making you uncomfortable even through the TV screen. There’s a certain violence to the way he takes up space in the ring, and everything he throws seems designed to leave a mark.
Defensively, he doesn’t want to be particularly elusive. Adams believed in his chin, believed in his strength, and believed that if he landed first or last, he would probably win this fight. This confidence – some might call it stubbornness – is at the core of who he is as a fighter. He’s built for pressure, for the late rounds and for those moments when the game gets ugly and someone has to prove he belongs at world level.
So how does Williams plan to negate the undeniable attributes of the middleweight champion?
“I try to destroy everything in every fight. That’s who I am as a fighter,” he explained. “I’ll always try to dominate. Maybe that’s where my mistake in losing to Hamza was, but that’s not me; it’s not who I am.
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“Kevin saw [Adames] He came back after the sparring session and told me it was going to be an easy night for me. I won’t go into detail about what he saw, but stylistically he was a good opponent. “
Williams revealed his mental health struggles a few years ago and cited structure, family and the support he received from within the sport as the main reasons for his successful return.
Hamza Sheraz (left) defeats Austin Williams in a middleweight bout on June 1, 2024 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Photo by Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing/Getty Images)
(Mark Robinson via Getty Images)
“Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom to rise to the top again,” he said. “It hasn’t always been smooth sailing since then, though. After the loss to Shiraz — and the death of my grandfather — I struggled a lot with my identity in the sport. I couldn’t escape the fact that I was an undefeated boxer anymore. I never felt that defeat, that shame, or that embarrassment. That’s pretty big for someone going through it for the first time.
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“But because of my previous struggles, I now have the foundation to recognize what I need to do to get through it. I have to reconnect with myself and figure out who I am again. Who am I on the other side of the fence? I’m able to do that because I still have my wife, my career — it’s not over yet.”
Still, fighting games are fighting games, and maintaining a healthy mental perspective isn’t always easy.
“I can’t imagine losing this fight,” Williams said. “As much as I tell you what I went through and how bad it was, I never thought, ‘Well, now that I’ve been through that, I’m OK.'”
“My whole mentality is to be a world champion and if I don’t do that, I’m not going to be good. I’m not going to. I’m not going to have any comfort or peace of mind because I’ve been through this once before. I can’t. I won’t. I’m not going to lose. I’m giving it my all.”
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Williams said he would end Saturday’s seventh round with a “shot that no one saw coming” that set a pace “Adams won’t be able to keep up with”.
“Even winning this championship is not enough to achieve the greatness I feel for myself. Don’t beat anyone in sports or make people feel like they have to be perfect for success. But I don’t want that to be my image at all because I don’t believe in that. When you achieve greatness, there is no wiggle room to accept anything but greatness—and greatness is victory. “