Mykquan Williams: “I Don’t Say ‘No’ To Any Opponent”

By: Sean Crose

“Training camp went well,” undefeated super lightweight Mykquan Williams tells me just days before his match this Saturday against Matt Doherty at Connecticut’s Foxwoods Resort. Williams states that, right now, he’s in “chill mode.” In other words, he’s “not doing too much.” Riding a red hot streak since turning pro, with a record of 11-0, Williams admits that Doherty is “a real tough opponent.” According to Williams, the Massachusetts native “is like a machine.” Still, Williams remains cooly confident. Sure enough, the fighter is looking forward to weighing on on Friday because he “can’t wait to go eat.”

Not that Connecticut’s Williams has a blasé attitude. To the contrary. Indeed, the man is happy to once again be fighting in his home state. “It’s always a good feeling,” he told me, adding that the local crowd is a great thing to have behind him. Yet Williams isn’t going to try to look explosive at the risk of taking an L. “If it comes, I’ll take it,” he says of a potential knockout. “You don’t want to get too reckless.”

Playing it smart is important to Williams. Later this week, the man will leave the Hartford area, where he lives and head to Connecticut casino country down by the state shoreline. “I leave early Friday,” he says. “All my stuff (will be) packed Thursday night.” Once he’s at Foxwoods’ Resort, he’ll just “stay in (the) hotel room hanging.” In order to keep busy, Williams may “scroll through social media.” At no point does he intend to obsess over Doherty and the battle ahead. “I don’t really think about the fight,” he says.

Even after the fight, Williams aims to keep things low-key. He’ll make an appearance for those closest to him, of course, (“Everybody’s going to be waiting for me to come out”), but afterwards, he’s apt to head out “to eat with my manager and girlfriend.” Williams, in short, is a man focused on the future, both in and out of the ring. “I’m off for the summer,” he says of his college career. “I’ll go back shortly.” Not that boxing, the sport he’s so far excelled in, is on the back burner. “I don’t say ‘no’ to any opponent,” he says. What’s more, this weekend represents something new. “It’s my first time headlining,” he says. “(I’m) working my way up.”

And what about a potential title shot? “Probably a year and a half,” he claims. To rush things needlessly wouldn’t be playing it smart.