Williams, ultimate ambassador, trains female world champion

Sherman “Tank” Williams is the ultimate sports ambassador for his country, the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.

A multiple global regional champion who is the heavyweight boxing king of The Bahamas, Williams, a Grand Bahama native, has branched out his profile to include being the trainer for female boxing champion Sarah Mahfoud of Denmark.

Williams is preparing Mahfoud to meet multiple champion Amanda Serrano of Puerto Rico on Friday, December 11, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Currently, and in his case, for over a decade now, Williams has been prominent in carrying the Bahamian boxing banner across the world. Particularly at this moment in time, when Bahamian boxing is at one of its lowest points, it is primarily because of Williams, along with middleweight Tureano Johnson and the Commonwealth Boxing Council (CBC), that our country has some level of world professional ring recognition.

Former CBC Super Middleweight Champion Jermaine Mackey has long gone under the radar; Meacher Major and Edner Cherry are retired. Williams, who continues with his long fistic career; Johnson, who is training for a world middleweight title fight; and the CBC, which projects Bahamian boxing along with other Commonwealth of Nations members, are indeed, collectively, the main ingredients for professional boxing in The Bahamas. Hopefully, in the not too distant future, other Bahamians will rise to the status achieved by the aforementioned, or perhaps beyond.

For now, though, Williams is definitely carrying a big share of the load in ensuring a Bahamian flavor in world professional boxing. His outreach into training on a major scale does a lot to enhance Bahamian boxing in Europe. A much sought-after sparring partner, Williams continues also to try and entice noted boxers to take him on. The fact that he is not the usual veteran stepping-stone opponent causes rising fighters and established ones to avoid him.

Therefore, always an on-the-move and proactive boxing figure, Williams is focusing on taking the pride of Denmark, Mahfoud, to greater heights. Mahfoud captured the Interim International Boxing Federation (IBF) Female World Featherweight title this past February with unanimous decision over Brenda Carabajal. The victory kept Mahfoud perfect (10-0 win-loss record), and with the latest win coming over a quality opponent, Carabajal (16-5-1), she earned the right to challenge Serrano. With a win-loss-draw record of 38-1-1, Serrano presently holds the Interim World Boxing Council (WBC) Featherweight title, the World Boxing Organization (WBO) Featherweight crown, the WBO Super Flyweight title, the WBO Super Lightweight title, the WBO Super Bantamweight title and the WBO Bantamweight title.

Clearly, Serrano, two years older than the 30-year-old Mahfoud, is a huge challenge. Mahfoud’s Bahamian trainer, however, is confident.

“We’re pushing forward 1,000 percent. I believe in Sarah and I know she can do it. Amanda is tough and experienced with 40 professional fights. Sarah has 10 professional fights, good ethics and plenty heart. We will make history on December 11 in Vegas. Sarah is a good student. I added to her arsenal, aggressive movements, an overhand right, a left hook, ring generalship, setting up an opponent and some of the basic skills that have been forgotten,” Williams told Sports Scope.

If Mahfoud is successful in December against Serrano, the history-making will be two-fold, for Denmark and The Bahamas, with Williams as the trainer of an authentic multiple world champion boxer.

I see him as the country’s top boxing ambassador because of his wide body of work in the sport. He deserves to be highly appreciated and congratulated for the magnificent role he has been playing for more than a quarter of a century, 23 of those years as a professional fighter.

Continued best wishes to “Tank” in his ongoing efforts to foster nation-building. He is an elite sports ambassador, a son of the soil fellow Bahamians should be proud of.

• To respond to this column, kindly contact Fred Sturrup at e-mail address sturrup1504@gmail.com or on WhatsApp at (242) 727-6363.

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