ONTARIO, Calif. – The matchup between Shane Mosley Jr. and D'Mitrius Ballard evolved from a snoozer into a slugfest, and it was the son of the Hall of Famer who ended up landing the scintillating win.

After four uninspiring rounds, the middleweight Mosley (19-5, 11 KOs) turned up the heat in the fifth by knocking down Ballard (21-2-1, 13KOs) and leaned on newfound momentum in the seventh to score the stoppage victory at the Toyota Center.

A lengthy series of unanswered shots ended the affair in the seventh, as referee Thomas Taylor saved Ballard from a debilitating beating by stepping in at the 1:42 mark of the round. 

Ballard’s arms were flailing as he was trying to hold while absorbing a hard flurry of shots. Ballard never seemed to recover from getting knocked down two rounds before that. Mosley was battering Ballard in the pocket throughout the sixth as well.

Seemingly trying to please the restless crowd, the Pomona, Calif. native started opening up and unleashing – and connecting – with significant power shots in the fifth. His best punch was a clubbing right hand while backing away. By the final ten seconds, Ballard tasted the canvas, as he fell halfway across the ring and face first after absorbing a three-punch combination. A flush, straight right hand was the last of the three punches that blistered Ballard. 

The fight got off to a very timid start with a feeling out first round. A clash of heads momentarily stopped the action in the second, proving to be the most significant sequence of the stanza. Loud boos started breaking out by the third, as the pace resembled nothing more than a subdued sparring session. 

The wave, a tradition saved for the nearby Los Angeles Dodgers, broke out by the fourth. In the ring, meanwhile, both fighters kept frequently fainting and throwing one pitter-pat punch at a time.

But from the fifth round and onward, the 32-year-old Mosley did more than enough to earn the respect of the fans in his co-main event fight. He even perhaps earned a shot at Saturday night’s headliner in stablemate Jaime Munguia.

Mosley won for the fourth consecutive time since his last loss to Jason Quigley in 2021. One of the four wins was against Gabriel Rosado last year. 

Ballard lost for the second straight time. He suffered his first career loss to Munguia in a third-round stoppage in February 2022.

Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer, and broadcast reporter. He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, through email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com, or via www.ManoukAkopyan.com.