Julian Williams overcame a knockout loss to Jermall Charlo in 2016 to realize his dream of becoming a world champion in May. And he did it by outpointing a junior middleweight who was unbeaten and on the rise, Jarrett Hurd.
Now comes the hard part – hanging onto his two belts.
Williams (27-1-1, 16 KOs) will make his first defense against tough Miami-based Dominican Jeison Rosario (19-1-1, 13 KOs) on Jan. 18 at Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Williams’ hometown. The fight will be televised on Fox and Fox Deportes.
“It took a lot for us to get the title,” Williams said. “We had some bumps in the road. But me and my team, we just kept battling and fighting through. We finally got our breakthrough fight and got the titles, and we wanted to bring the titles right back to Philadelphia.
“It’s amazing to have this opportunity to come back home and perform in front of my home crowd.”
Of course, Rosario doesn’t enter the fight with a reputation similar to that of Hurd but he’s on his own comeback run. He was stopped by Nathaniel Gallimore in April 2017 but is 7-0-1 against solid opposition since then.
Williams has respect for him.
“Rosario is a really good fighter and I’m not just saying that,” Williams said. “They’ve been matching him tough and he’s been coming through fights he wasn’t supposed to win. I’m expecting a really tough fight and for him to be in shape.
“He’s got 36 minutes to change his life forever. I was in his exact same position very recently. It would be extremely arrogant for me to think I can’t lose.”
Williams will be fighting in his hometown for the third time but the first time since 2011 and the first time as a world titleholder. He can’t wait to bring his belts into the ring.
“I haven’t actually thought about fight night and what it will feel like,” he said. “I can only imagine it will be amazing seeing the people who have watched me fight since I was a teenager. I’m pretty sure as it gets closer to the fight, I’ll start thinking about it and it will give me an extra push in camp.”