The first fight from Showtime’s tripleheader is in the books. Julian Williams overcame some midrounds adversity to rally back and take a deserved, reasonably wide decision over Jamaica’s Nathaniel Gallimore. At least he did on two cards anyway. It was a good, rough fight to open the show.
Julian “J-Rock” Williams (25-1-1, 15 KOs) started the Showtime opener very well by using his more refined skills to outbox Nathaniel Gallimore (20-2-1, 17 KOs) for the first two rounds. The fight changed stylistically in the third as the two men started to engage in a more clinch heavy inside brawl. This evened the fight up a bit, but J-Rock was still getting the better of the work by a noticeable margin through three. His body work was especially on point. The fourth was close as Gallimore really began landing in the last minute.
The fifth was the first round I scored for the Jamaican. It was a slower frame, but J-Rock was looking fatigued and didn’t get anything done. He was also cut, albeit on an accidental clash of heads. Both me looked quite tired in a slow and even sixth round. By the seventh Williams’s technique and polish had largely gone out the window as he fought Gallimore’s fight. He was still landing, but the Jamaican underdog was doing the better work to my eye. J-Rock did take the eighth by upping his activity though. I had him up 5-3 going into the fight’s last third.
Clearly the less tired of two exhausted men, J-Rock came out and delivered a dominant ninth round behind some quality power work with both hands. After an equally shaky tenth, Gallimore came out inspired for about a minute in the eleventh. Unfortunately for him, the following two minutes were an absolute beating in the wrong direction. Williams seemed on the verge of a stoppage win until the bell rang to end the round. It didn’t come in the twelfth either, however, as J-Rock seemed to have punched himself out in the eleventh.
I scored the fight 117-111 for Julian Williams. Steve Farhood had it 116-112. The official scores came back 114-114 even, 116-112, and 117-110 for J-Rock Williams by majority decision. The draw was a weird card, but the right man won.
