Highlights and results: Austin Williams crushes Chordale Booker in one, wins for Mati, Nicolson, Coe

Austin Williams capped the Taylor vs Serrano prelims in truly impressive fashion, smashing through Chordale Booker in the first round, overwhelming him with a barrage of punches until the referee had no choice but to call the fight.

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This is a big statement for “Ammo” Williams, a 25-year-old southpaw middleweight prospect who was taking a good step up against a skilled fighter in Booker, who seemed to be on the verge of getting some shots to break out a couple years ago before missing a year due to injury.

Booker (17-1, 7 KO) had upset potential here on paper, but in reality, Williams (11-0, 9 KO) just cracked him, hurt him, and poured on the punches until Booker was knocked halfway through the ropes, at which point referee Charlie Fitch ruled a knockdown. He gave Booker, 30, a count, but it was clear Chordale was in no condition to continue, and Fitch stopped the fight at 2:25 of round one.

Williams is a young fighter Matchroom clearly liked a lot, had some issues outside the ring for a bit that had some questioning his future in boxing, but has come back and looked really good, and never better than this explosive performance. This was a statement from a young fighter and should be something to really take note of for an aging middleweight division.

More results

• Reshat Mati UD-8 Joe Eli Hernandez: Mati goes to 12-0 (7 KO) with a shutout win here. The question with undercard fighters coming in from Mexico unknown is always if there’s something you can’t see on the records. The answer here was no, as Hernandez (12-2, 10 KO) offered very little against Mati, other than just not getting stopped. Mati still seems questionable as a high-level prospect to me; he can box, good hand speed, but not sure the power is really there despite a respectable KO percentage so far, and we’ve still got a lot to learn about him, whether I’m right or wrong about his ceiling at this point. And I could certainly be wrong. He seems to be progressing toward a proper move down to 140, too, and if he does that then we’ll have to reevaluate what he brings at that weight, because you never know, that could bring some thunder out on his shots.
• Skye Nicolson UD-6 Paisley Davis: Nicolson, the 2020 Olympian from Australia, looked really good again, going to 3-0 (0 KO) as a pro, all three of those fights coming within the last 57 days. She dropped Davis (3-2, 0 KO) late in the sixth and final round on a great little shot, and overall was just a frustrating proposition for Davis, a Texas fighter who really tried and showed some skills at times, but was out of her depth against Nicolson. The plan is for Nicolson to fight again soon, then take a little break and get out two more times — so three more times in all — before the end of 2022.

• Khalil Coe UD-6 William Langston: The prelim commentary team loved this performance from Coe (3-0-1, 2 KO), but I remain a little lukewarm on the 25-year-old light heavyweight. He got hit plenty here by Langston (6-3, 4 KO), and the last couple rounds it seemed like the tables were turning a bit. But I do think he won; I’d agree with Waleska Roldan’s score of 58-56, with the other cards at 59-55 and 60-54.