Hard Rock, Hollywood, Florida - Carlos Gongora broke down Christopher Pearson inside eight rounds in the first defense of his IBO World Super-Middleweight title.

Gongora floored Pearson with a left hand and having suffered damage to his left eye from Gongora’s accurate jab for the duration, Pearson rose but took a knee once again for back-to-back KO wins for the Ecuadorian in the Hard Rock Casino, who was called a ‘dark horse’ in the division by promoter Hearn.

“I feel really happy to defend my title,” said Gongora. “This pandemic has affected us all, boxers with inactivity, so I am so happy to be able to have won the title and now defend it.

“I just followed the game plan. I wasn’t necessarily looking for the KO, because it was more going round by round and looking for opportunities, it represented itself and I was able to win the fight.

“I was really excited to return to where I won the title in December, and more importantly to keep it.

“My focus is always just to get the win, that’s all I can really do, everything else is out of my hands. Hopefully the Canelo fight is one that can be made down the line, that fight would be the cherry on top of the cake.”

Also on the card,  Andrey Fedosov delivered a first round KO win over Mahammadrasul Majidov as the Azerbaijan man broke his right ankle after being put down by a heavy right hand by the Russian. Majidov managed to get to his feet but hampered by the injury, he was floored against by Fedosov and failed to rise a second time and had to be stretchered out of the ring.