The questions of faith and ability swirling around Danny Williams’s mind have always come back to haunt him during the times when he has needed to relax and focus the most.

The come-from-nowhere heavyweight contender has spoken of how his fragile, soft psyche became so damaged that before big fights he would cry in his dressing room and then freeze up in the ring. But he took a major step toward conquering his demons with a victory over Mike Tyson in July, and prepared to challenge for a heavyweight belt.

That moment came in Las Vegas on Saturday night when Williams, a 4:1 underdog, took a shot at heavyweight titleholder Vitali Klitschko. Williams was supposed to be “relaxed” and “confident” and “focused” as he promised before the fight, adding, “I am a warrior. I will have to be at my best and I will have to be a warrior.”

In truth, none of his predictions came even close to being true. From the first nervous moments of the first nerve-racking round it appeared as though those demons swirling around Williams’s mind had come back again. The fighter, like many times before, began to freeze up.

His strategy, as he explained it before the fight, had been to stay flexible, to adapt to Klitschko’s style, and to focus on eluding his much bigger opponent. That failed miserably. Instead, Williams was stiff, predictable, and pinned like a tack to the end of Klitschko’s scholarly jab.

Nothing was working for Williams; as the fight and the beating continued, nothing changed. Williams’s corner barked to him about the urgency and severity of the situation. They slapped his arms and they slapped his shoulders and the saliva from their desperate words seemed to land all over the fighter’s swollen face.

“Don’t give up on me now, Danny,” one second said. “Don’t give up on me now.”

Williams, one eye nearly shut from a cut suffered in the first round, only stared blankly ahead as if he were oblivious to it all. Round after round, he got off his stool to take more of the same beating until referee Jay Nady mercifully stopped it after eight rounds.

Williams, who’d been knocked down four times, didn’t complain about mental problems in his post-fight interview. He praised Klitschko instead, saying, “He was too good.”

In truth, Klitschko seemed better than that. His output was tremendous. His accuracy was devastating. He measured his masterpiece of destruction without once finding himself in danger. The only part of his body he hurt was his hand – from punching Williams so many times.

At 6 feet, 7 inches and about 250 pounds, Klitschko fought Williams like a tactical welterweight – firing off combinations (albeit lumbering) to the head, to the ribs, to the chest, then uppercuts, with the left hand, with the right hand. Every punch, thrown from different angles, seemed to land cleanly and effectively. Among fans plunking down $49.95 to watch the fight in their living rooms on pay-per-view, moans of disappointment could be heard.

For Klitschko (35-2), the fight for supremacy in a fractured heavyweight division continues, and his dominant victory seems only to bring more electricity and momentum to his supporters within the opposition party in his embattled native country, Ukraine.

“The best is yet to come,” Klitschko said after the fight.

For Williams (32-4), who was taken to the hospital for a precautionary brain scan after the fight, the questions continue to swirl in a swollen mind, namely this one: What happened?