Dannie Williams, who trains in Youngstown, will be fighting Friday, August 12, on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights.  Williams (18-1, 14 KO’s) will face Antonio Cervantes (16-5-5)  in the nationally televised event.

There was concern that Williams injured his hand last time out and would not be able to fight with such short prep time.  Jack Loew, who trains Williams at Youngstown’s Southside Boxing Club addressed the hand issue.  “Dannie’s hand is fine.  He has been training very hard for this fight and we want to make a good showing on ESPN.”

In Williams’ last fight, a decision he won against Oscar Cuero in Youngstown, Williams struggled in the third to fifth rounds because his braided hair was laying in his eyes.  “We will cut his hair off between rounds this fight”, commented Loew.  “I will stop blacktopping driveways and learn how to be a barber real quick if that happens again.”

Before the Cuero fight, Williams said he was ready to take the next step and needed to get some television exposure.  ESPN Friday Night Fights is some good exposure.  If he wants to keep rising up in the rankings, he will have to perform better than he did against Cuero.  Currently, Williams is ranked ninth best in the United States (of 190 fighters) in the power rankings for lightweights according to Boxrec.com.