Cherneka Johnson didn’t allow a rocky start to get to her head.

Johnson overcame a gruesome cut above her forehead early in her 10-round defense Saturday night against Susie Ramadan to win a unanimous decision to retain her IBF women’s junior featherweight belt on the undercard on the Devin Haney-George Kambosos II.

The scores were 97-90, 96-92, 96-91, all for Johnson.

Both fighters started off aggressively behind their jab. By the second round, they were both bloodied; Ramadan above her right eye, Johnson from the nose. But Johnson would find herself in dire straits late in the round, when an inadvertent head clash opened up a giant gash around her forehead. As she walked back to her corner at the end of the round, Johnson’s face was a mask of red.

A doctor examined Johnson after the break and appeared intent on stopping the fight but, in the end, he allowed it to continue.

Johnson, to her credit, seemed to fight even better with the blood pouring from her face, fighting aggressively in the third round.

Johnson kept up her success in the fourth round, scoring a knock down of Ramadan, seemingly with the jab. Moreover, Johnson’s corner was having more success staunching the blood-flow from her cut.

Johnson, 27, took over in the second half of the fight, consistently beating the 43-year-old Ramadan to the punch.

The night would not get easier for Ramadan. In the seventh round, she was deducted a point for punching behind Johnson’s head. Johnson (15-1, 6 KOs) continually landed her straight rights.

Seemingly out of options, Ramadan (29-4, 12 KOs) tried her best to roughhouse Johnson on the inside but to no avail. Instead, she had another point deducted in the eight round for not obeying the referee’s commands.

In the 10th round, the two traded furiously in the middle of the ring, getting in their fair share of clean shots.