Julian Williams dominates replacement foe, stays undefeated

Philadelphia junior middleweight Julian Williams stayed unbeaten with an easy cruise control win tonight on a special edition of ShoBox, stopping replacement foe Jamar Freeman in the eighth round after three knockdowns.

Williams controlled the early rounds easily, though it was an exceptionally slow start, with neither doing much in the first round. Williams easily won that round, as Freeman spent most of it in a defensive posture, landing a single punch near the end of the round, according to SHOStats.

The pace didn't pick up a whole lot from there, but Williams was able to land some solid shots as he dictated the tempo and, well, basically everything else in the fight. Freeman remained offensively flaccid through the first half of the fight, throwing little and landing at a truly pathetic rate, with 15 connects in the first five rounds.

Williams finally turned up the heat in round seven, scoring a pair of knockdowns. With Freeman looking about ready to pass out in the corner, he came back out for round eight, but was stopped early in the round, taking another knee while clutching at his ear.

Freeman (13-4-2, 7 KO) was a short notice opponent, signed up with six days' notice, and lost 13 pounds between Monday and Friday's weigh-in, according to the Showtime team.

Williams (18-0-1, 11 KO) might not be the sort of exciting fighter that gets people talking after seeing him, but he's a technically sound guy with a lot of skill, too, and may be the best prospect in Philadelphia at the moment, and possibly the best prospect at 154 pounds.

Williams landed 38% of his total punches (138/367) and 50% of his power shots (91/181), compared to a meager 22/172 (13%) for Freeman overall.