BROOKLYN, N.Y. – In a battle of local unbeaten prospects Chris Colbert defeated Titus Williams by unanimous decision in a thrilling bout between two former New York City Golden Gloves champions on the undercard of the Deontay Wilder-Bermane Stiverne heavyweight world title bout at Barclays Center. The official scores at ringside were 79-72 (twice) and 78-73.

The 21-year-old Colbert (7-0, 2 knockouts) displayed lightning-quick combinations and foot movement that kept Williams (7-1, 2 KOs) off balance most of the night and dropped Williams in the fourth with a right hand that Williams did not see.

Colbert, a Brooklyn native who won the 2014 New York City Golden Gloves, made his return to Barclays Center for first time since making his debut in the building on the Amir Khan-Chris Algieri undercard in May of 2015.

Colbert’s speed was the difference early on as he caught Williams with clean shots and moved extremely well to keep Williams guessing and missing. Williams came back in the third round finally letting his punches go and keeping Colbert stationary for the time being.

Colbert stormed back in the fourth landing harder punches and making Williams miss. One long-reaching right hand that missed its’ mark, Colbert landed a right hand on Williams’ ear drum sending him down for the first knockdown of William’s young career.
Williams managed to recover well and tried again to press Colbert in the fifth catching Colbert with a right hand, which managed to get the 21-year-old’s attention. Colbert used his quickness to avoid anything meaningful from Williams and popped a few stiff jabs to keep Williams at arm’s length.

Colbert seized control again in the sixth round and had the bout in control as Williams just could not catch up to the boxer known as “Little B-Hop” after one of his favorite boxers Bernard Hopkins. Not too dissimilar than Hopkins Colbert looks to employ much of the same ring tactics as the future hall of famer.

Colbert did a little showboating in the seventh and allowed Williams to get close enough to him in the eighth and final round that it turned into a slug fest for the first time. Williams, who had a strong contingent of supporters in the building from the nearby town of Elmont in Long Island, New York, landed three right hands to Colbert’s head pushing Colbert back to the ropes but unfortunately for Williams it was too late as Colbert had won virtually all the early rounds to have a comfortable lead.

Heavyweight prospect Efe Ajagba improved to 3-0 with 3 KOs with a fifth-round technical knockout win over Rodney Hernandez (10-7-2, 2 KOs). The official time of the stoppage was 1:31 of round five.

The 23-year-old Ajagba, who represented Nigeria in the 2016 Olympic Games, battered Hernandez with hard right hands busting Hernandez’ nose open in the opening round and almost getting an early stoppage.  Ajagba had Hernandez hurt again in the third and fourth rounds using his power to back Hernandez up. By the fifth round Hernandez was in full retreat mode prompting referee Ricky Gonzalez to stop the bout.

Brooklyn-native Amanda Serrano (34-1-1, 26 KOs) defeated Marilyn Hernandez (26-11, 17 KOs) by first-round technical knockout. The official time of the stoppage 2:38.
Serrano, who is the first female fighter in boxing history to win world titles in five weight divisions, took a brief break from her burgeoning MMA career to annihilate an overmatched Hernandez.

Hernandez tried to take the action to Serrano and got caught with a big right hand which send her down for the first knockdown. Serrano would send Hernandez down again with an overhand right hand followed by a left hook. Not fully recovered, Hernandez tried to continue and went down again from an overhand right hand by the powerful Serrano who stands 5-foot-5 with a 65-inch reach.

This marked the fourth appearance for the 29-year-old Serrano who is looking to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Holly Holm to mixed martial arts in hopes of landing larger paydays. Serrano has held world titles at bantamweight, junior featherweight, featherweight, junior lightweight and now lightweight.

In the first of the scheduled five heavyweight bouts on the card Lenroy Thomas (22-4, 10 KOs) survived an early knockdown to defeat Ed Fountain (12-3, 5 KOs) by unanimous decision. The official scores at ringside were 77-74 and 76-75 (twice).

The Jamaican heavyweight who now lives and trains out of Florida started off very lethargic fighting off the ropes and taking a lot of clean shots from Fountain. In the third round Thomas started coming on and found a home for his body shots which hurt Fountain and slowed him down.

Thomas slowed down long enough in the fourth round and Fountain connected with a right hand which sent Thomas down to the canvas. Thomas beat the count and Fountain was too gassed to apply any sort of pressure to hurt Thomas any further allowing Thomas to recover and fight back.

The 32-year-old Thomas had Fountain hurt in the fifth round by going back to the body and landing a looping left hand up top. Fountain was completely out gas and was just looking to hold on for the rest of the bout.

This was Thomas’ first bout since winning an upset split-decision over David Allen on the Errol Spence-Kell Brook undercard in Sheffield, England last May.

In the opening bout of the evening bantamweight prospect Dylan Price (4-0, 4 KOs) defeated Trevor Ballinger (0-3) by first round technical knockout. The official time of the stoppage was 2:01.

The 19-year-old Price overmatched Ballinger with his lightning quick combinations and had him hurt early in the opening round. Ballinger told the referee he was okay to continue and then quickly got walloped by a three-punch combination causing him to take a knee. The referee immediately stopped the bout.

Price had a decorated amateur career including being named the most outstanding boxer at the 2013 Junior Olympic Nationals, but was not old enough to qualify for the 2016 United Sates Olympic team so he decided to turn pro and sign with his idol Floyd Mayweather’s Mayweather Promotions. This was the fourth bout of 2017 for the New Jersey native.