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Julian Williams looked like he had an early night on his hands, but he wound up going the eight-round distance with a resilient Joachim Alcine, who survived three knockdowns in the first five rounds to test the young prospect in the final three frames, winning each of them, but still coming up very short.
All three judges scored the fight 77-72, which mirrored the BLH score.
Williams (13-0-1, 7 KO) put Alcine down in the first, fourth, and fifth rounds, but was never able to finish him off. In the first, he even appeared to try too hard to close the show, maybe giving himself some stamina issues that would haunt him just a bit, if not really ruin his chances or anything of the sort.
But the 37-year-old Alcine (33-5-1, 19 KO) targeted the body down the stretch, and landed some hard blows upstairs, too, including a vicious right hand on the button in the eighth round, which Williams admirably ate and kept on going. The fight was, one would hope, a learning experience for the 23-year-old Philly fighter, who still has plenty of learn, and plenty of time to learn those things.
Our live coverage of Malignaggi-Broner continues here, so join us for the remainder of the show!