Christopher Pearson Is “Stay At It” In Trunks With Gloves and a Mouthpiece
Hollywood, FL (April 14, 2021) — Christopher Pearson, Middleweight from Trotwood, Ohio, probably isn’t the trendiest name in the average daily boxing conversation – or social media posts. But, at 30 years old, the 6-foot southpaw personifies an inspirational hashtag, #StayAtIt, he started using in his Instagram captions once he started working his way back after his fall.
…it don’t get no better than that right now… – Christopher Pearson
Pearson was an accomplished amateur who earned a promotional deal with Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s Mayweather Promotions outfit. As one of Mayweather’s highly coveted talents, the sky was the limit for the young Midwesterner. Unfortunately, the future quickly grew dim following a February 2017 Showtime-televised second round knockout loss to Justin DeLoach. With both young fighters then at one loss each, the fight was a ‘winner move on, loser go home’ situation.
Pearson won a pair of “off Broadway” fights in 2018 that were far from the lights of TV platforms and high-definition cameras. In May 2019 he returned to Las Vegas in the main event of a Golden Boy Fight Night. The bout streamed live on Facebook Watch. Pearson displayed his resiliency and upset then undefeated Yamaguchi Falcoa.
Pearson’s name was once again abuzz after the big win. Golden Boy’s Bernard Hopkins was ringside and offered his stamp of approval. With the win the Ohioan picked up a regional WBC title, and Golden Boy soon after announced bigger plans were underway.
Once 2020 arrived, Covid-19 cruelly stamped out Pearson’s rekindling fire. Boxing shut down for a few months, but once it resumed Pearson, like many other notable fighters, never made it back into the ring.
Four months into 2021, boxing and world still isn’t out of the woods regarding the pandemic. However, Pearson and his camp couldn’t allow an important phone call go by. The subject of the call was a championship bout with another fighter who recently got a stunning upset.
This Saturday on Matchroom Boxing’s WBO Middleweight championship bout featuring Demetrius Andrade versus challenger Liam Williams, Pearson (17-2, 12 KOs) faces Carlos Gongora (19-0, 14 KOs) in the co-main event that will stream live on DAZN.
Back in December, Gongora overcame some early adversity against the highly-touted Ali Ahkmedov. The 31-year old Ecuadoran stopped the Gennadiy Golovkin protégé in the 12th round and claimed the vacant IBO Super Middleweight title.
Why is Pearson, who previously campaigned at Super Welterweight and had his breakthrough moment at Middleweight moving up to face an undefeated opponent at 168-pounds? He provided his reasoning in interview earlier this week which was provided by Matchroom.
“It’s been a tough time overall for everybody. But when this opportunity was brought to me, I had about 3½ weeks to prepare. So, I’m like, it don’t get no better than that right now, under these conditions, and it’s a world title opportunity so I had to jump on it.”
One intriguing aspect of Pearson’s bout with Falcoa in 2019 was the two fighters had history from their time as amateurs. Going into the bout with Gongora, there’s also a familiarity between the champion and Pearson. Learn more about that detail in the embedded interview.
Following Gongora’s stunning victory over Ahkmedov, Matchroom Boxing brought the hard-hitting underdog onboard as one of the fighters on its roster. So Pearson’s facing another set of unfavorable odds against a house fighter with a bright future. Fortunately for the determined southpaw from the Dayton-area, he already knows of the importance to stay at it.
According to Box Rec, Pearson no longer resides in Ohio. But, he hasn’t been gone long enough to forget the tornadoes that ripped through the Dayton area and heavily impacted his hometown of Trotwood in May 2019. Pearson wasn’t the only Dayton athlete affected by the pandemic in 2020. Last March, on the 7th to be exact, the No. 5-ranked Univ. of Dayton Flyers men’s basketball team, 28-2 at the time, was poised to make a legitimate run at the NCAA’s Final Four when March Madness was canceled.
The entire city might not know about Pearson’s career-defining opportunity this weekend, but the bout against Gongora won’t go totally unnoticed locally. #StayAtIt, champ!
Featured image provided by Michelle Farsi/Matchroom
Gongora photo provided by Matchroom
