WASHINGITON, D.C. — Unbeaten welterweight prospect Dusty Harrison, of Southeast, Washington, D.C., scored knockdowns in the first and third rounds of Saturday night’s third-round stoppage over Nalo Leal of Airway Heights, Washington, in Harrison’s seventh appearance at the Convention Center.

Click here for a video of round one.

Click here for a video of rounds two and three.

The 18-year-old son of an Irish father and a Puerto Rican mother, Harrison improved to 10-0 with six knockouts, and rose to 7-0, with six knockouts while competing at the Convention Center.

Leal (4-17-1) was dropped by a first-round right hook out of the southpaw stance, and then, from a similar right hand out of the orthodox position on the way his sixth straight loss, and his 13th time in his past 14 fights.

Referee Kenny Chavalier waved an end to the fight at 31 seconds of the round, even though Leal rose to his feet and wanted to continue.

“I’ve been working on my southpaw stance for a few years now, and I’ve been getting better and better at it every day that I work on it. The second knockdown was a short, straight right hand out of the orthodox, conventional stance. I was hitting him pretty hard, so I think that the stoppage was good,” said Harrison, who returned to the site of September’s second-round stoppage of Shane Gierke.

“I do think that he was still looking to fight and probably could have gone on, but that the knockout was going to happen soon. I was hitting him pretty hard, though, because I could feel the vibrations all the way from my feet through my arms every time that I hit him. I know that there were people in the crowd that wanted the fight to go on, but I don’t think that the people in the crowd realized how hard the shots were.”

Trained by his father, Buddy Harrison, Dusty debuted at the Convention Center in December of last year, when he stopped Terrell Davis in the first round of his third career fight.

Harrison scored three knockdowns with a similar right hand shot to the temple of Davis, the final one causing referee Billy Thomas to step in and end things at 2:46.

Harrison’s victory over Davis took place on the undercard of a split-decision victory by Lamont Peterson that dethroned then-IBF and WBA junior welterweight titleholder Amir Khan.

Sporting the DMV belt, sponsored by Hall of Fame, former two-time champion Mark “Too Sharp” Johnson, Harrison hopes to return to the Convention Center on Dec. 8 against Tim Witherspoon Jr. (8-3-1, 2 KOs), of Philadelphia.

Photo by Juan Marshall

Lem Satterfield can be reached at [email protected]