Adonis Stevenson Dispatches Thomas Williams Jr. in 4th to Retain Title

The best left in the business, here's another look at @adonissuperman KO of @topdoggjr on #PBConSpike. #AndStill pic.twitter.com/ofUhuZixCT

— PBC (@premierboxing) July 30, 2016

Adonis Stevenson once again had his crushing knockout power on full display Friday night as he electrified the capacity crowd inside Centre Videotron in Quebec City. “Superman” knocked out surging challenger Thomas Williams Jr. in the fourth courtesy of his vaunted left hand to retain his WBC light heavyweight championship in a bout that headlined the latest edition of Premier Boxing Champions on Spike.

Williams (20-2, 14 KOs) looked nervous at the pre-fight staredown and came out of his corner stiff and rigid. The champ was loose and letting his hands fly but all Williams could stand to do was cover up; he appeared too reluctant to throw anything in return. And when “Top Dog” was dropped late in the opening frame from a left hook to the top of the head, it seemed as though Williams stood no chance of winning.

Things turned around in a hurry, though, as Williams finally threw caution to the wind and stuck Stevenson with a torch of a right hook that stopped “Superman” in his tracks. From there, Williams’ confidence soared and it created a hell of a back-and-forth brawl. Both 175-pounders were rocked in the third and Williams’ fortunes continued into the fourth as he not only forced the titlist into brief close-quarters slugfests, he talked trash and dared Stevenson to hit him.

That plan eventually backfired.

As they tore into each other with nearly reckless abandon, Adonis finally caught his foe with a sharp left hook on the inside. Williams’ legs immediately turned to gelatin and he backed off in an attempt to recover. Stevenson chased him down, though, and as soon as he backed his wounded prey into the ropes, he drilled the Maryland fighter with a missile of a left hook flush on the chin. Williams fell face first and never came close to beating Michael Griffin’s count.

The official time of the highlight reel knockout came at 2:54 of the fourth, allowing Stevenson (28-1, 23 KOs) to defend his title for the seventh consecutive time. After the fight, however, there was no mention of rival Sergey Kovalev, who the world is clamoring for Stevenson to eventually fight.

Light heavyweight contender Eleider Alvarez (20-0, 10 KOs) opened the Spike telecast with a dominant unanimous decision win over late replacement Robert Berridge. Alvarez used superior movement and speed to out-box his opponent for 10 rounds and won via tallies of 99-90 and 98-92 (twice). Berridge (27-5-1, 21 KOs) filled in for the injured Chad Dawson.

Also on the card, middleweights Immanuwel Aleem (16-0-1, 9 KOs) and Demond Nicholson (17-1-1, 16 KOs) picked up the pace during the second half of their eight-round fight and brought some good action to the viewers, but in the end the judges couldn’t decide on a winner. The official result was a majority draw with scores of 76-76 (twice) and 77-75 for Aleem.