Julius Jackson stays unbeaten, stops Jonathan Nelson in ninth round

Super middleweight prospect Julius "The Chef" Jackson, the son of Julian Jackson, stayed undefeated tonight on a special edition of ShoBox: The New Generation, stopping Jonathan Nelson in the ninth round of their TV opener from Shelton, Washington.

Jackson scored a knockdown in about 30 seconds of the first round, after blasting Nelson with big shots that came as a result largely of Nelson's own reckless offense. Referee Jack Reiss seemed to give Nelson extra time to recover, asking at the count of eight, "Are you getting up?" Nelson did get up, and it's arguable that this allowed him to stay in the fight.

For the next four rounds, Jackson was in control, landing plenty of power shots, as Nelson seemed to have some trouble recovering from the heavy blows of round one, appearing a bit glassy-eyed and possibly even concussed. But Jackson showed signs of vulnerability here and there, not from Nelson doing much well offensively, but from his own indifference to defense.

That finally came back to bite Jackson in the sixth round, when Nelson unleashed a handful of strong right hands that landed and put "The Chef" on the retreat for the first time in the bout. But in round seven, Jackson went back to imposing his will, stemming the tide, and in round eight, he scored a heavy knockdown late in the round. That led to Nelson's corner asking if the fighter wanted to continue between rounds, and referee Jack Reiss showed concern, as well, noting that Nelson's output was dropping and he was failing to protect himself.

The corner bit set up Reiss to stop the fight at the first sign of trouble in round nine, and he did, calling it off when Nelson was wobbled early with another hard shot.

Jackson (19-0, 15 KO) still has a long way to go if he's going to be a serious super middleweight contender, but the 27-year-old has good power, he's long, and he's tall at 6'2". Offensively, he has a killer instinct. Defensively, he is indifferent at best, and careless at worst. Tonight, he had a talent edge on Nelson (19-2, 9 KO), and his power was enough to get him through.

Jackson landed 40% of his total shots (186/468), including an astounding 51% of his power punches (120/236). Nelson also landed with good percentages (34% total, 40% power), but wasn't able to throw enough, landing 68 of 200 total punches.