By Keith Idec

Omar Douglas boxed well Tuesday night, but it wasn’t enough to spare him a second straight loss.

Junior lightweight contender Edner Cherry defeated Douglas by unanimous decision in their 10-round fight Tuesday night in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. All three judges – Ron McNair (96-94), Kevin Morgan (98-92) and Steve Weisfeld (96-94) – scored the fight for Cherry.

Cherry’s win was the main event of a Premier Boxing Champions “Toe-To-Toe Tuesdays” telecast from Sands Bethlehem in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Cherry, of Wauchula, Florida, improved to 36-7-2 (19 KOs). Douglas, of Wilmington, Delaware, dropped to 17-2 (10 KOs).

There weren’t any knockdowns during the competitive bout and neither fighter seemed hurt at any point in the fight.

Just as he had done in most of the previous rounds, Cherry attacked Douglas at the start of the 10th round. Cherry couldn’t maintain that pace for long, though, and Douglas eventually established the distance that favored him and pressured Cherry later in the 10th.

One of the most exciting exchanges in the fight came with about a minute to go in the ninth round. Cherry and Douglas landed left hooks during it, but each fighter took those shots well.

Both boxers did some solid work inside during the eighth round, particularly to the body. Douglas boxed well in the seventh round and for the third straight round landed an eye-catching left hook toward the end of it.

Douglas moved more during the sixth round than he had earlier in the fight, which tended to keep Cherry at a safe distance until Cherry got more aggressive near the end of the round. That enabled Douglas to land a counter left hook just before the sixth round ended.

Following four mostly competitive rounds, Cherry and Douglas started trading at the beginning of the fifth round. They exchanged several jabs later in the fifth, when Douglas landed a flush left hook just before it concluded.

Earlier in the fight, Cherry knocked Douglas off balance with a right hand with about 10 seconds to go in the second round. Cherry and Douglas began trading less than 30 seconds into the fight, but eventually slowed the pace before Cherry landed a solid right hand in the center of the ring with about a minute to go in the first round.

The 34-year-old Cherry won a second straight fight since losing a 12-round split decision to Puerto Rico’s Jose Pedraza (22-1, 12 KOs), then the IBF world super featherweight champion, in October 2015 in Cincinnati.

The 26-year-old Douglas lost a second consecutive fight. Former WBA world super featherweight champ Javier Fortuna (31-1-1, 22 KOs, 1 NC) defeated Douglas by unanimous decision in Douglas’ last fight, a 10-rounder November 12 in Philadelphia.

Earlier Tuesday night, Bethlehem’s Frank De Alba (22-2-2, 9 KOs) beat Ryan Kielczewski (26-3, 8 KOs), of Quincy, Massachusetts, by unanimous decision in an eight-round super featherweight fight. De Alba won by scores of 80-72, 77-75 and 77-75.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.