Eimantas Stanionis stalked Justin DeLoach throughout their fight Wednesday night.

Stanionis’ persistent pressure made DeLoach box backward for eight-plus rounds and led to the unbeaten Lithuanian welterweight prospect stopping him in the ninth round. Stanionis dropped DeLoach twice in the ninth, in the main event of an FS1 broadcast from Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.

The 26-year-old Stanionis improved to 11-0 and recorded his eighth knockout. The 26-year-old DeLoach, of Augusta, Georgia, lost by knockout for the third time in his career and slipped to 19-5 (10 KOs).

Stanionis’ right hand up top and subsequent left hook to the body sent DeLoach to his gloves and knees with 1:30 to go in the ninth round. DeLoach answered referee Ray Corona’s count and continued, but Stanionis’ right hurt him later in the ninth and he went down again with 52 seconds remaining in that round.

DeLoach got up again, and he tried his best to hold and withstand Stanionis’ aggression. Corona eventually realized DeLoach didn’t have much left, so he stepped between them and stopped the fight at 2:53 of the ninth round.

After Stanionis hurt him badly late in the seventh round, DeLoach mostly avoided Stanionis’ power shots during the eighth round by constantly moving out of Stanionis’ punching range. Stanionis did land a hard right hand to the side of DeLoach’s head in that eighth round, though.

Stanionis landed a right hand to the side of DeLoach’s head and followed with a left hook that hurt DeLoach with about 25 seconds to go in the seventh round. DeLoach held and moved to survive until the end of that round.

A right-left combination by Stanionis landed about 45 seconds into the sixth round. DeLoach constantly moved in the sixth round, but he didn’t stand still long enough to get leverage on any of the punches he threw toward Stanionis.

Stanionis continued coming forward throughout the fifth round. He landed a left hook to the body with just over a minute to go in that round.

DeLoach landed punches while fighting off his back foot, but Stanionis kept connecting with the harder shots.

Stanionis landed two left hooks just before the fourth round ended. A left hook by Stanionis landed with about 1:15 to go in the third round.

Stanionis landed three stiff jabs in the final 30 seconds of the second round. Stanionis nailed DeLoach with a left hook when DeLoach moved backward 1:05 into their fight. 

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