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Steven Pearce is crowned Midlands champion

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Stourbridge's Steven Pearce is the new Midlands welterweight champion after seizing the belt in a blistering five-round brawl at Burton Town Hall.

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'Fierce Pierce' stepped into the contest at just four days notice to replace Walsall's Joel Ryan, who was ill with a chest infection, with Derby's Luke Gallear the co-challenger for the vacant crown.

Pearce, 28, had been training to box at Wolverhampton Civic Hall eight days later so was reasonably fight fit and flew out of the blocks against an equally up-for it- Gallear on Friday night.

Both tore into each other and traded punches at will with defences non-existent but it was Pearce who was starting to get the upper hand, wading in with uppercuts.

That pressure told when battle resumed for the second round when Gallear hit the floor and was left dazed with blood leaking from his nose, but he managed to battle back.

His spirited resolve was broken in the fifth after three gutsy sessions when Pearce kept throwing right hand that hit the target every time, forcing the referee to step in.

It's some turnaround for Pearce fight-to-fight after he was eliminated from the welterweight Prizefighter at the first hurdle in January, responding with a title win in his very next outing.

On the undercard, a five-star show from Brierley Hill's Kyle Spencer saw him score his first victory inside the distance by getting the job done in the first round.

Competing in his fifth contest as a professional, 'the Style' stayed cool as opponent Jimmy Price, Burton-born but now boxing out of Swadlincote in Derbyshire, charged forward.

It was a foolish strategy – Price twice visited the canvas from left hooks and had his nose bloodied by light middleweight Spencer, 23, before the referee ended the fight within the first three minutes.