Photo by Esther Lin/Showtime Sports
On Friday, February 24, 2017, Justin DeLoach (17-1, 9 KOs) scored a second-round KO victory against Chris Pearson (14-2, 10 KOs) at the Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, California.
The scheduled 10-round 154-pound fight headlined a three-fight telecast of ShoBox: The Next Generation.
DeLoach, a 23-year-old native of Augusta, Georgia, continues his impressive rise in the 154-pound rankings, though he has one blemish on his record: a TKO loss to Cesar Vila in 2015.
Pearson, a 26-year-old of Dayton, Ohio, was overwhelmed early but DeLoach’s power.
During an exchange in Round 2, Pearson began to hold DeLoach’s left arm. Pearson was trying to clinch, but he should have done better to hold both of Deloach’s arms.
Instead, DeLoach was allowed to land several right hands that Pearson could barely block, while referee Jack Reiss warned Pearson to stop holding. The quick succession of right hands hurt and dropped Pearson.
When he got back to his feet, Pearson was dropped yet again by a combination. Pearson could not make the ten-round this time, though.
“I’m not surprised that it happened so quickly,” DeLoach said.
“We had a strategy and we stuck to it. Hard work pays off and that was proof,” said Deloach, who was the B-side of tonight’s main event.
“I felt lackluster,” Pearson said. “He came out and he was explosive, he was busy. He didn’t do anything I didn’t expect.
“Things happened the way they did, and you gotta take the good with the bad. He hit me in the eye which got me a bit disoriented. He fought like I thought he would, he did what he had to do. His performance didn’t surprise me,” said Pearson.
