Sam Eggington lays out Midlands champion

Teen terror Eggington, 19, laid him out with a booming right uppercut and finished Pearce off with a left hook for good measure, leaving him face down on the canvas.

Pearce, 28, gamely tried to answer the count but was in no fit condition to continue, forcing referee Terry O'Connor to dispense with the contest by virtue of technical knockout.

He had already been on the deck in the second round, after Eggington clubbed him straight to the mush with another right uppercut that placed him on the seat of his shorts.

Pearce had been second best for much of Friday night's contest, as Eggington opened like a house on fire putting combinations together and forcing his opponent onto the back-foot.

After the first knockdown, Pearce tried to walk him down in round three and fared little better at close quarters, Eggington stinging his ribs after peppering him with body shots.

Pearce tried to step up the pace in the fifth and threw everything at Eggington, but the challenger forced the finish with the fight-ending blows come the seventh.

On the under-card, Cradley's Chris Male exorcised his demons by returning from his short-lived retirement to right the wrongs of his previous outing at the Venue.

The punching postman lost an English featherweight title shot last November at the same place last November against Leeds' Josh Warrington and hung up his gloves in March.

But 'the Male Man,' 30, reconsidered and can consider himself back and a running with a six-round points win over Slovakian visitor Elemir Rafael, as he got valuable ring time under his belt.

Male started slowly in only his second fight in two years but settled as the contest wore on, rocking Rafael with a stiff right hook but his head stayed firm.

He upped his volume of punches in the fifth and came at Rafael, who evaded his attacks and clung on to the final bell. He was whitewashed in the points stakes, though, by 60-54.

Meanwhile, Brierley Hill's Kyle 'the Style' Spencer took on the experienced tough man from Birmingham, Dee Mitchell, stepping in for fellow Brummie Andrew Patterson.

The 23-year-old light middleweight announced his intention by scoring with a right uppercut but Mitchell fired back with a right hook of his own.

Spencer switched his attacks to the body and kept busy to record a points shut-out with the referee, Wolverhampton's Gareth Morris, after four rounds by 40-36.

Completing the card was Birmingham's Andrew Robinson and Northampton's Ashley Lane, the latter getting the job done early with a third round retirement.

Robinson outpointed the slippery slugger from Scunthorpe, Jody Meikle, and won every round to take another landslide points victory, by 40-36.

Scotsman James Ancliff was also dumped onto the seat of his shorts after being whaled with a right hook in the second round of a bruising contest where both spilled blood for the cause.

Ancliff's corner pulled him out at the end of the third with a wide wound above his right eye, Lane sporting the same injury but it was closed by his cut-man.

By Craig Birch