Williams was thankful, though, that Wendy Toussaint took their 10-round, non-title fight on such short notice and his hard work wasn’t wasted once WBC middleweight champ Carlos Adames abruptly withdrew Friday afternoon.

Williams predictably beat the smaller late replacement on “The Ring 6” undercard, but it was somewhat surprising that he went the distance with the career-long junior middleweight.

Seemingly let down by Adames pulling out of what was supposed to be the Milwaukee native’s first title fight, Williams settled for a unanimous points win on the cards of judges Tom Carusone (99-90), Max De Luca (98-91) and Benoit Roussel (99-90).

Toussaint (17-4, 7 KOs) didn’t do much offensively, but going the distance with Williams was a victory of sorts. He took the strong southpaw’s hardest shots five years after Charles Conwell knocked him out in the ninth round in 2020.

Williams’ vicious right uppercut knocked Toussaint to the seat of his trunks with 17 seconds to go in the fourth round. Toussaint answered referee Ricky Gonzalez’s count at eight and the bell rang about a second after the action resumed.

Toussaint never seemed hurt in any of the ensuing six rounds.

Williams didn’t land any damaging punches in the first three rounds. In fact, Toussaint’s right in the third was the most eye-catching punch before the the knockdown.

Toussaint took their fight on about 36 hours’ notice, once an ill Adames (24-1-1, 18 KOs) declined to weigh in for his optional title defense against Williams. The Haitian-born Toussaint was training for a fight against an undetermined opponent February 28 at The Paramount in Huntington, New York, where he also resides.

Toussaint, 33, weighed in just above 168 pounds Friday, about the same as Williams once he rehydrated. Toussaint hadn’t weighed more than 159 pounds for any of his previous 20 professional fights.