Former WBO Welterweight boxing champion Paul Williams has been paralysed from the waist down after a motorcycle crash in Atlanta, Georgia.
Former two-time WBO Welterweight boxing champion Paul Williams was paralysed from the waist down on Sunday after being involved in a motorcycle crash in the suburbs of Atlanta.
Doctors said it is unlikely the interim WBO Light Middleweight titleholder will continue his career, manager George Peterson said on Monday.
"From the waist down, he has absolutely no movement. He's in very good spirits, though," Peterson told The Associated Press from his home at Aiken in South Carolina. "He still believes he's going to fight again."
Williams severed his spinal cord after falling on his back and head when he was thrown from his bike on Sunday morning at Marietta in Georgia, Peterson said. Williams has been listed in a serious but stable condition at an undisclosed hospital.
"I know he's going to make a statement after surgery on Wednesday, because he's that kind of person," Peterson said.
"He's 100 per cent coherent and still has the will to want to get back on the motorcycle."
Williams was scheduled to fight Saul Alvarez on September 15 in Las Vegas but that event has been cancelled, Peterson said.
He said he continues to hope with Williams that the boxer's career isn't over.
"I want to think along with him cause I've seen him do things in his boxing career that shouldn't have happened," he said.
The crash happened after Williams tried to avoid another car in the next lane that was negotiating a curve and then had to manoeuvre to avoid an oncoming car. Williams was in the area to attend his brother's wedding on Sunday afternoon, Peterson said.
"We want his fans to know he's going to be all right and he'll be back," Peterson said. "He said if he wasn't going to be boxing, he's going to be a stand-up comedian."
