Antonio Williams threatened throughout fight week to steal the show from his higher profile stablemate.

It remains to be seen if it holds true but the unbeaten Texan earned his latest win in style. Two early knockdowns paved the way for a first-round knockout of Dominican Republic’s Braulio Rodriguez in their Fite TV Pay-Per-View preliminary bout Friday evening from Casino Miami Jai Alai.

The latter of Rodriguez (20-7, 17KOs) profusely complained that both knockdowns came from shots behind the back of the head. Williams—trained by Kevin Cunningham, whose star pupil Adrien Broner headlines the show—landed a chopping right hand behind the ear to send Rodriguez to the canvas. The final knockdown appeared to land in the same location, this time with the fight brought to a halt at 2:22 of round one.

Adlay Rodriguez nearly matched the quickest win of his young career. The 18-year-old Miami-based Cuban southpaw blasted out Raul Garcia Jr. in the opening round of their battle of unbeaten welterweights. Garcia was down three times, at which point referee Samuel Burgos stopped the contest at 1:48 of round one.

Brayan Leon was brief in his unexpected televised appearance, as the 20-year-old rookie halted winless Iowa native Jon Kennedy (0-3) in the first round. Leon (3-0, 3KOs)—a Las Vegas-based Cuban who turned pro in January at this very venue—scored three knockdowns in just 1:09 of one-sided action.

Rodriguez (5-0, 5KOs)—trained by Ronnie Shields—drove Garcia (2-1, 1KOs) into the ropes for the first knockdown and then dropped the Oklahoma City native with a body shot. The final blow of the night was a straight left hand by Rodriguez to force an immediate halt to the contest. The win was his third inside of two minutes and came just six weeks after a 61-second blitzing of Izaiah Vargas at nearby Miccosukee Indian Gaming Resort.

Antonio Perez posted the first win of the night for boxers from Pennsylvania. Unlike the evening’s main event, Perez was favored to beat California’s Nigel Fennell (13-3, 8KOs) and had little difficulty as shown on the scorecards. All three judges scored the contest 80-72 for Perez (8-0, 5KOs) in their weiterweight contest.

Joshua Clark opened the eight-fight Don King-promoted extravaganza with an upset win over previously unbeaten Dorian Bostic. Scores of 60-54, 59-55 and 58-56 all went to Clark, who outworked Maryland’s Bostic (13-1, 12KOs) from the opening bell and rode out a rough fourth round to close strong and preserve the victory.

Headlining the show, Broner (34-4-1, 24KOs) ends a 28-month layoff as he faces Pittsburgh’s Bill Hutchinson (20-2-4, 9KOs) in a ten-round welterweight contest. Cincinnati’s Broner—who turns 34 in July—has not fought since a February 2021 unanimous decision victory over Puerto Rico’s Jovanie Santiago.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox