Over the next couple of weeks, BoxingScene writers are listing their favorite fights. Some are fights they attended, some are not. Some are included because they were epic contests, others because they involve a favorite fighter, a favorite moment, or hold some kind of special significance.
I remember watching Ricardo Williams Jnr and Anthony Lenk, a fight that mattered so much to me.
Let me set the stage. It was September 2012. Andre Ward was the world super middleweight champion at the time, set to face Chad Dawson at the Oracle Arena in his hometown of Oakland, California. I was there and walked in as the bell sounded for the first round of Williams and Lenk beating the hell out of each other.
Williams was a 2000 U.S. Olympic silver medalist.
His career was up-and-down as a pro with a few early career losses. During the latter part of his career, the Cincinnati, Ohio-bred boxer trained in the Bay Area. To my naive eye, he looked like the closest thing to Pernell Whitaker I had seen.
I can’t remember if I had seen Williams in the gym before the fight I describe here, but seeing him in the gym always left a strong impression. Williams and Levan Ghvamichava were two formidable fighters in the gym of that era who always stood out.
Yet, Williams entered the fight coming off a knockout loss to Carson Jones nine months earlier.
Lenk was a tough fighter who had only lost to Jessie Vargas early in his professional career.
A native of Niagara Falls, New York, Lenk might have fought at just under 144lbs, but had the intensity of a mauling middleweight. Williams landed clean blows, but the will of Lenk would not be deterred.
It was one of the first fights I sat ringside for and one of the only fights in which I can remember seeing the heads snapping back from clean punches. I recall thinking all ringside fights were like this.
(Spoiler alert: they aren’t.)
As fans entered the arena, interest grew in the fight that wasn’t necessarily on their radar beforehand. Rounds would end, and fans would clap.
By the end, those in attendance cheered thunderously as both fighters gave it their all. Those on press row were split over who won with many favoring Lenk. In the end, Williams would win a majority decision victory over Lenk.
It was the greatest fight most people never saw.
In an era before streaming and on-demand content, Williams and Lenk fought a competitive undercard bout to see who was the better fighter. The irony is that the fight took a lot out of both.
Williams would only fight two more times in his career. He defeated the unbeaten prospect Luis Ramos Jnr and fought one more time in 2014.
Williams would finish his career at 22-3 (12 KOs).
Lenk would lose another majority decision to Hector Vazquez and take four years off before losing a third straight majority decision to Steven Martinez.
His most notable fight was a 12-round unanimous decision defeat to Mark DeLuca. By that point, Lenk was no longer the same fighter who went tooth-and-nail with Williams five years earlier.
Lenk fought until 2002, and would end his career at 17-10 (7 KOs).
My favorite big time fight, in all honesty, is Mike McCallum-James Toney I. That said, Williams-Lenk is a fight that will be right up there. It displayed all the traits of a great fight: heart, will, skill, and, like all great match-ups, both fighters left a piece of themselves in the ring that night.
Lucas Ketelle is the author of “Inside the Ropes of Boxing,” a guide for young fighters, a writer for BoxingScene and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Find him on X at @BigDogLukie.
