By Keith Idec

Gary “Spike” O’Sullivan, the supposed ‘B’ side, upset Antoine Douglas on Saturday night.

O’Sullivan regularly landed right hands to the sluggish Douglas’ head and eventually knocked him out in the seventh round of their scheduled 10-round middleweight fight at Place Bell in Laval, Quebec, Canada. An aggressive, tough O’Sullivan consistently pressed the action and exploited Douglas’ defensive flaws until he finally floored Douglas in the seventh round.

Ireland’s O’Sullivan (27-2, 19 KOs) hurt Douglas with a right hand early in the seventh and landed several more power punches to send Douglas to the canvas. Douglas got up, but referee Steve St. Germain didn’t like what he saw from Douglas and stopped the fight at 1:03 of the seventh round.

Douglas, of Burke, Virginia, slipped to 22-2-1 (16 KOs).

O’Sullivan’s victory was the second of two bouts HBO broadcast before the main event, a middleweight title fight between WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders and David Lemieux.

O’Sullivan landed a hard right hand at 2:10 of the fifth round. O’Sullivan drilled Douglas with another flush right hand with 1:26 to go in the fifth.

O’Sullivan drilled Douglas with a counter left hook with 1:43 to go in the fourth round, but Douglas took that shot well and came back to have some success in the fourth. O’Sullivan and Douglas connected with an effective left hook apiece within the first 30 seconds of the third round.

Douglas and O’Sullivan landed their fair share of power shots during a competitive, action-packed second round. O’Sullivan started strong by connecting with numerous head and body blows during the first round.

Douglas, 25, was supposed to be too big, too fast and too strong for O’Sullivan. Before O’Sullivan stopped him, Douglas had won three straight fights since suffering his lone loss – a 10th-round stoppage against Avtandil Khurtsidze in March 2016.

The 33-year-old O’Sullivan has lost only to Saunders and IBO super middleweight champ Chris Eubank Jr.

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