The Enemy Within – The Joey Williams Story

 
NEVER in my years of writing about the sport of boxing have I come across a man so raw, open, honest, and courageous. A man who has been to hell and back and lived to tell the tale for the greater good of others. A depressive, a former abuser of alcohol and recreational drugs, a divorcee, a special talent on the Rugby League field who failed to reach his full potential. A suicidal man who almost took his own life.

 
This is the story of Australian light welterweight boxer Joe Williams.

 
Joe Williams was a normal everyday knockabout kid from the Wiradjuri lands of Cowra and Wagga Wagga in country NSW. A kid who grew up playing Rugby League and watching his father train in the boxing gym. A carefree happy child with big dreams of becoming a Rugby League or a boxing star. Never did he envisage in his wildest dreams what lay ahead for him.

 
The former South Sydney, Penrith, and Canterbury NRL halfback was a junior schoolboy standout representing Australia whilst at Marcellin College in 2001. In 2004, the time had arrived for Williams to realise his childhood dream of playing at the elite level when making his first grade debut for the Rabbitohs.

 
He went onto play fifty first grade games when his league career was cut short back in 2008 when he retired from the top level. The pressure of trying to perform consistently at the level required got to him, he burned out. All this while trying to cope with the hidden demons of depression, and a heavy dependence on alcohol and illicit drugs.

 
He elaborates. “Mate to be honest, when I was playing football, I was a dickhead. I was drinking, partying and doing drugs, just self-medicating to cope, completely out of control. It was amazing I didn’t top myself when I was doing it. I got to Sydney as a kid who had plenty of talent but just thought it would all fall into place for me. I didn’t work hard enough and the habits I fell into and the depression and anxiety pretty much killed my Rugby League career”.

 
At the crossroads of his life after the NRL, Williams turned to boxing in late 2008 after being encouraged by legendary trainer Johnny Lewis after he liked what he saw in Williams during sparring. He went on a tear, winning six from six and stopping three of those opponents inside the distance. Williams fondly recalls what Lewis said to him before a fight.

 
“It was funny and terrifying at the same time. Johnny is a great man and a motivator of men. He grabbed me by both cheeks and I sensed this great motivational speech and I was thinking, wow, here is this legendary man who has trained the likes of Kostas Tszyu and Jeff Fenech about to give me a rev up and all he said was mate, just hit and don’t get hit. It may have been simple, but it had so much of a calming effect on me, he’s a genius” Williams explained.

 
In 2012 Williams ventured back into Rugby League taking on a coaching role with Dubbo CYMS. The pressure of succeeding at his new role, losing his kids and the break-up of his marriage in that short period of time, brought him to his knees. Later that season, he made an unsuccessful attempt at taking his own life and was admitted to a mental health facility. He felt he had nothing left.

 
“It was the lowest point in my life. I felt useless. I had even wrote letters to my kids” he says.

 
He then started on a path to recovery. Williams has been clean and sober now for quite some time. He has a new fiancée, who he credits as a big factor toward his recovery and they have recently welcomed a new born son into the world.

 
Williams’ boxing career has reached a new high too. He recently captured the WBC Asia Continental light welterweight title after defeating the tough and durable, Rusmin Kie Raha in his hometown of Wagga. He readily admits that he is still very much in the learning process of the professional ranks and concedes he still has a ways to go given he had no amateur experience.

 
Williams is also using his experiences to help others suffering from mental illness by conducting open nights in his hometown of Wagga Wagga, having just completed one this past week.

 
He has also taken on a role as an Aboriginal Education officer at Mater Dei Catholic College in Wagga assisting young indigenous students reach their goals in full potential through sport and education. Williams has also opened up a gym in the rural city and conducts classes for men, women and children of all ages. He also has a number of amateur boxers there.

 
“Helping people, helps me” he said.

 
Williams has also recently completed a mini documentary on his life struggle with depression and the battles he faces daily with the “black dog”. He teamed up with a short film maker, who was the mother of one of his boxers in his gym, who won the Wagga short film festival the previous year.

 
The powerful film titled “The Enemy Within”, is raw and confronting but has one very simple powerful message. Never give up.

 
For a man to have endured so much, mentally and also physically, it would be quite understandable for him to want to stay silent and deal with this complex issue by himself.

 
Not Joe Williams. The courage shown to open up and share his struggle with others is a testament to his strength of character. He is living proof of what can be achieved through adversity and also has a very powerful characteristic held only among truly great people.

 
The power of hope.

 
 
Photo: Louie Abigail/Photography by Rockfingrz