William "Honey" Mellody (January 15, 1884 – March 2, 1919) was an American boxer who took the Welterweight Championship of the World on October 16, 1906, defeating former champion Joe Walcott in a fifteen-round points decision in Chelsea, Massachusetts.

On June 30, 1903, Mellody was knocked out by Joe Nelson, who would box as a talented middle and welterweight against Blink McCloskey, and gifted "Colored" Light Heavyweight World Championship contender George Robinson.

[1] After losing to Buddy Ryan, Mellody won eleven bouts by knockout prior to his first World Welterweight Championship title fight, facing boxers who could be described as competent fringe contenders.

McKeever was an older competitor a bit past his prime, but had been capable of once facing both a young Joe Walcott, and former welterweight world champion "Mysterious" Billy Smith three times.

Mellody's third round knockout of contender Willie Lewis in Chelsea, Massachusetts three months before facing Walcott foreshadowed his imminent conquest of the World Welterweight Title.

[1] Mellody got his first shot for the World Welterweight title against the legendary Barbados Joe Walcott on October 16, 1906, at the Lincoln Athletic Club in Chelsea, Massachusetts.

Walcott's return to the ring after accidentally shooting himself in the hand two years earlier showed great determination, and the skill he displayed in his first title match with Mellody indicated that without his injury he may have remained champion.

The New London Day echoed the same sentiment when it wrote "Age, long service, and an accident to his good right hand, along with his jovial way of living abridged Walcott's career as a champion, for he could have been a factor for many years to come were it not for the "automatic shooter" that he displayed once too often.

Mellody lost the title, by referee decision, in a long twenty-round match in Los Angeles, California, against the older but possibly stronger Mike "Twin" Sullivan on April 23, 1907.

Mellody's tactics were confined to rushes generally ending in clinches where Sullivan used right upper cuts and short hand jabs to the face with telling effect".

The Gazette Times wrote of the fight that "Lewis scored a knockdown in the first round and in point of cleverness outclassed Mellody," in the exceptional fourth-round knockout.

[1] Mellody would recover some of his form beating quality welterweights Frank Peron, Unk Russell, and Terry Martin in the first half of 1910, though no longer by quick knockout.

He faced Jimmy Perry, Paddy Lavin, and Frank Peron in the first half of 1911, in Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Newport, Rhode Island, losing all three, by newspaper decision.