Austin Trout outboxes, frustrates, finishes Joey Hernandez with body shots

Trout did what he was expected to do tonight, handily outboxing Joey Hernandez before ultimately stopping him in the seventh round.

From the beginning, it was clear that Hernandez had zero answer for Trout's jab. Trout (30-2, 17 KO) did an excellent job of controlling distance, steering clear of Hernandez's wide swings in the early going. It only took a few rounds for Hernandez's (24-4-1, 14 KO) output to bottom out. As Trout worked the jab and solid body shots, Hernandez settled for jabbing back and, in the fourth round, blatantly body-slamming his foe to the mat.

Trout responded by upping his output, battering an increasingly-ineffective Hernandez before ultimately dropping him to his knees with a pair of nasty left hands in the sixth. Hernandez failed to beat the count, Trout's third straight knockout victim.

Though the competition was obviously less-than-stellar, Trout looked very solid. His footwork and jab were both on point, as was his head movement. In all, he looked like he's ready to face quality opposition again.

Hopefully, he can keep roasting some ribs.

The opening bout between Jorge Lara (27-0-2, 19 KO) and Jesus Rojas (21-1-2, 15 KO) came to an end in the sixth round, when a headbutt-borne cut on Lara closed his right eye. Lara came out strong with combination punching and a stinging uppercut, taking the opening rounds, but seemed somewhat cowed once the headbutts started piling up. Rojas, now on the front foot, had apparently taken control of the fight when they went to the judges, who returned a very reasonable trio of 57-57s.

For quick results and round-by-round coverage of the fights, click here.