Video: Benavidez Dominates, Stops Douglin in 10th of PBC on ESPN Main Event

And that's it! David Benavidez (16-0, 15 KO) stops Denis Douglin via TKO early in the 10th & final round. #PBConESPN pic.twitter.com/UgJg9MHsA7

— PBC (@premierboxing) August 6, 2016

Promising super middleweight prospect David Benavidez looked terrific in his first primetime televised main event on Friday night as he dominated Denis Douglin for nearly 10 rounds before finally stopping him. His triumph was the featured bout on the latest edition of Premier Boxing Champions on ESPN and Benavidez ignited the sell-out crowd inside the 2300 Arena in South Philadelphia with his performance.

Benavidez was his typical aggressive self, slamming hard punches to the head and body of the New Jersey fighter. But Douglin was much tougher than most likely expected and “Mama’s Boy” stood in the pocket and willingly traded with the much taller Phoenix-based 19-year-old, creating spurts of stellar action.

As the fight wore on, though, Benavidez’ relentless body attack slowly withered Douglin’s gas tank. Douglin was hurt by a series of hooks to the guts in the sixth and seemed ready to go in the seventh, but he got a breather of a few minutes in the stanza when the ropes collapsed just as Douglin backed the prospect into them. The delay didn’t offset Benavidez’ pursuit of victory, though, as he resumed the pounding of his foe as soon as the fight resumed.

Douglin (19-5, 12 KOs) was eventually dropped by a wicked series of uppercuts and hooks with about 15 seconds remaining in the ninth and when veteran referee Gary Rosato warned him that he’d stop the fight going into the 10th, the third man kept his word almost as soon as the frame began. Benavidez swarmed the smaller man and when a clean right hook staggered Douglin into the ropes, Rosato intervened. The official time of the TKO came just 36 seconds into the final round of the contest, allowing Benavidez to improve to 16-0 with 15 KOs.

The opening bout of the telecast started off hotter than a wild fire as welterweights Alejandro Luna and last-minute replacement Naim Nelson tore into each other as soon as the fight began. The two stood toe-to-toe for the first three rounds of the battle, but when Luna began landing the far cleaner, harder punches, the action slowed down. Nelson (13-2, 1 KO) couldn’t budge the unbeaten Californian but he showed a terrific chin over the course of 10 rounds. In the end, though, Luna was far more effective with his punches than the local fighter and coasted to a lopsided unanimous decision. Luna won via tallies of 99-91, 98-92 and 97-93 to improve to 21-0 with 15 KOs.