By Keith Idec

Julian Williams wasn’t overly impressive Friday night, but he did what he needed to do to begin moving past a devastating defeat.

Williams was workmanlike for much of his junior middleweight match against Joshua Conley and eventually wore him down. Philadelphia’s Williams forced Conley to take a knee early in the seventh round, when Conley’s trainer threw in the towel to have their scheduled 10-round fight stopped in Toledo, Ohio.

Conley, who took a knee after Williams landed a left hand, got up before referee Gary Wolfe counted to 10. Williams swarmed him, however, and it didn’t take long for Conley’s handlers to stop the fight.

Wolfe waved an end to the action 58 seconds into the seventh round.

Williams (23-1-1, 15 KOs, 1 NC) won in his return to the ring after former IBF junior middleweight champion Jermall Charlo (25-0, 19 KOs) dropped him three times and knocked him out in the fifth round of their December 10 fight in Los Angeles. Williams’ win was televised by Bounce TV, just before a main event between IBF lightweight champion Robert Easter Jr. and mandatory challenger Denis Shafikov.

Williams took a patient approach in the first six rounds, but landed enough right hands to the head and left hands to the body to take control of the mostly uneventful fight. A small cut opened over Williams’ right eye in the fourth round, but it was kept under control and didn’t hinder him in the fight.

Before Friday night, Conley (14-2-1, 9 KOs) hadn’t fought in 15 months. The San Bernardino, California fighter’s only loss before Williams beat him was an eight-round, split-decision defeat to Daquan Arnett (15-1, 9 KOs) in August 2015.

In the first bout Bounce TV broadcast Friday night, Jamontay Clark scored a controversial unanimous-decision victory over Ivan Golub in an eight-round welterweight bout.

The battle between these undefeated, left-handed, 147-pound prospects was very competitive, but Ukraine’s Golub landed harder punches overall, kept Clark moving away from him for most of their fight and hurt Cincinnati’s Clark late in the fourth round. The taller, rangier Clark had his moments in the fight, though, especially with his straight left hand and body punches.

Despite Golub’s consistent effectiveness, judge Ken Bucher oddly credited Clark with winning seven of the eight rounds (79-73). The two other judges – Jamie Garayua and Rosemary Gross – scored the fight for Clark by the same score, 77-75.

The 6-feet-2 Clark, 22, improved to 12-0. The 28-year-old Golub’s record dropped to 14-1.

Clark landed two hard left hands to Golub’s head in the seventh round, but Golub took those shots well and kept coming forward.

Clark spent most of the fifth round trying to get his legs back under him after Golub buzzed him with a right hand late in the fourth round. Golub kept pressuring Clark, but he couldn’t hurt him again in the fifth round.

Golub hurt Clark by landing a short right hook with about 15 seconds to go in the fourth. Clark survived the trouble by holding. He eventually fell to the canvas, but it was ruled a push.

Before Golub hurt Clark, Golub and Clark landed head and body shots throughout a back-and-forth fourth round in which each fighter had his moments.

Clark connected with a left uppercut in the first 30 seconds of the third round that left Golub holding. Golub came back to slow down Clark with body shots later in the third.

Clark also landed several strong body blows in the third round, which, like the second round, was very competitive. Golub began landing his right hook and establishing himself as the bigger puncher in the second half of the first round.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.