One year he’s the cream of the crop, a future K-1 World Grand Prix champion, the next year he’s old laundry. Carter Williams has had his fair share of ups and downs since 2003 and his recent performances within the K-1 ring have been nothing more than disappointing.

Williams has lost a whopping five of his last seven fights and is on the verge of being considered a fighter who just can’t cut the mustard. That’s a far cry from what the “experts” were saying about him after he knocked out the legendary Rick Roufus to win the K-1 USA title two years ago.

But Williams is on a mission to change his career around and he’ll get his first chance to do so this Saturday. He is once again ready to compete in the Las Vegas K-1 tournament and he hopes to capture that crown and eventually make it all the way into the Tokyo Dome in December.

Sherdog.com recently caught with Williams, who had just overcome a bout with terrible illness, and spoke with him about many topics. He briefly chatted about how he knows how to change his losing streak around and what it takes to be the worlds best. Some issues have been pushed aside and Williams is determined to prove his detractors wrong come April 30.

Sherdog.com: So you got sick during training? How bad was it and what did you get?

Carter Williams: I got the flu and I had bad allergies on top of that. It was pretty bad, man. It was terrible. I couldn’t train like I wanted.

Sherdog.com: Will this affect you for the fight at all?

Williams:: No, I’m cool now. I’m over it and I’ve been feeling good and I’ve been able to train just as hard as normal.

Sherdog.com: You are scheduled to fight Yusuki Fujimoto in the first round of the K-1 USA tournament. What do you expect of him come fight time?

Williams: Well, we fought once upon a time and I know he’s a great kicker. He has lousy handwork (snickers), but from what I understand, he’s been touching up on his boxing game. I’ve been hearing about some of the things he’s been saying over the Internet so we’ll see how it’s gonna go down then. He says that he’s going to beat me, so I am ready. I am pretty hungry this year. This is a new me and I’ve been training very hard.

Sherdog.com: I sense some bad blood between the two of you. Is that legitimate bad blood or are you just irritated by some of the things that he’s said?

Williams: Well, I’ve been irritated by what he’s been saying. He says that he doesn’t care about the tournament, just as long as he beats me. Whether it’s genuine or not, it makes me try harder. I don’t like talking BS, you know?

Sherdog.com: Provided that you are successful against Fujimoto, you could fight Dewey Cooper in the second round. He’s wanted that rematch for a while now. Many thought he won the fight but got robbed, others felt you really deserved to win. I never noticed any bad blood between the two of you even though he’s wanted that rematch. Are things cool with you and Dewey?

Williams: Yeah; me and Dewey go back in the days. We started our amateur careers together and we came across each other’s path a few times when we were amateurs. I never had any problems with Dewey and I think he’s an excellent fighter, especially for being a smaller guy. He weighs only like 200 pounds yet he still gets in there with them big dudes, you know? He shows a lot of heart, Dewey Cooper does. But hey, whatever happens, happens. If we do meet up again I don’t want to leave in anybody’s eyes to say that he really won or that I did. If we do come across each other again, a knockout is a bonus, but I’m not going to shoot for it. I’m going to make sure I do some damage, though.

Sherdog.com: I talk to Dewey quite frequently and the fight between you two has come up a few times. He’s never dogged you at any time, but he has said that he badly wants to fight you again because he felt he won and that the judges robbed him.

Williams: It’s funny that you mention that fight because it was just on ESPN last night. I watched the fight again and I just don’t see how he thought he won or how anybody else thought he won. I fought a slow pace, yeah, and I wasn’t that aggressive but I felt that I did a whole lot more than he did. He sat there and ran and attacked, ran attacked when I was there and hit him with the harder punches, harder kicks. I rocked him like four times during the match and he didn’t faze me once. I guess that is what happens when you leave it in the judges’ hands. You can always talk that BS.

Sherdog.com: You mentioned earlier that this is a new you. The past two years haven’t exactly been a Carter Williams extravaganza. What has been going on with you and the losses?

Williams: I had a lot of personal problems, man. A lot of things were hitting me up and I had baby-mama-trauma. Back in 2003, I was a nobody and no one knew who I was and did great. In 2004, I kind of felt the pressure and I think a lot of people blew me up a little too fast. They had all these high expectations a little too early and it maybe played a little mind game with me. But now that I have been sitting back and listening to my coaches and I’ve just been trying to learn the business aspect of it all, trying to see how everything works. I’m just trying to think about just my fights and nothing else. I see what goes on now and I approach it a little better now.

Sherdog.com: I remember seeing you win the K-1 USA title a few years back and that was the first time I had ever covered one of your fights live. Then the following year, you started losing some fights and then the Internet and magazine critics started claiming that you weren’t that good to begin with and that you got lucky. That sort of abuse had to have brought you down.

Williams: No. None of that stuff bothers me at all. People don’t know who I am. They don’t know me at all. They only know me as a fighter. You have fight fans and then you have all these critics saying that I was lucky. You know, you don’t get lucky in fighting. Luck may play a small part in the fight, but when you knock someone out, that’s not lucky. That’s hard hitting and then the opponent hitting the canvas. People can say what they want to and that is what I’ve learned — to let people say whatever they want. If I sit there and dwell about what everybody is saying, it’ll take a toll on me inside the ring. I’d be sitting there trying to please everybody else when I should only be trying to please myself and my team. Now I just put all of that he say/she say crap behind me and let me prove to myself that I can go out there and win another championship and then advance to the Tokyo Dome. I want to give it my best.