Liam Williams defeated by Chris Eubank Jr despite spirited comeback from four knockdowns

Liam Williams was beaten on points by Chris Eubank Jr in their middleweight clash on Saturday night in Cardiff.

The Welshman went down four times throughout the course of the 12 rounds and took some serious punishment in the first half of the fight.

But he showed tremendous heart to claw his way back into it and close the gap on the scorecards, even though he found it difficult to cause the Englishman problems.

Williams looked good at the beginning of the fight. He landed a big left hand that rocked his opponent but then Eubank Jr came back with a stiff left jab that sent the Welshman to the canvas.

He survived the count and did well to make it to the end of the round.

Williams was down again the in the second and this one took longer to recover from. The right hand did the trick for Eubank Jr this time and it looked ominous.

In front of his home crowd, the man from the Rhondda rallied in the third round and landed a solid shot in the fourth that rocked Eubank Jr onto his heels.

But back came the pantomime villain at the Motorpoint Arena to put Williams down for the third time in four rounds with another sweet counter-punch.

By now, Eubank Jr was constantly goading the Welshman, desperately trying to entice him into walking onto another one of those counter-punches.

There was constant chatter coming from him through the rounds but Williams clawed his way back into things.

He started working on the inside more and looked the busier of the fighters through the middle rounds. He was throwing more punches, even if they weren't of the same kind of substance as the ones that were coming his way.

Williams showed immense character to haul his way back into contention and things started to get closer on the cards, particularly in the ninth