All Blacks Center Williams Wins 4th Bout at BetLM

AUCKLAND, New Zealand —All Blacks cen­ter Sonny Bill Williams main­tained an
unbeaten start to his pro­fes­sional box­ing career when he won an unan­i­mous points
deci­sion over Ton­gan Ali­pate Liava’a in a six-round heavy­weight con­test on
Sun­day.

Williams has now won all four of his pro­fes­sional bouts, though none has
been against a rec­og­nized oppo­nent. The 43-year-old Liava’a gave 18 years as
well as height, reach and weight to the 25-year-old Williams and never seri­ously
chal­lenged his younger rival.

Con­tro­versy sur­rounded the bout when it was revealed that Liava’a, who hopes
to embark on a pro­fes­sional career as a gospel singer, is receiv­ing a dis­abil­ity
pen­sion for an elbow injury.

All Blacks coach Gra­ham Henry was at ring­side and said he was happy that
Williams, a likely mem­ber of his World Cup squad, “hardly got hit.”