Photo by Naoki Fukuda

Demetrius Andrade floored England's Brian Rose with a straight right midway through the first round, dropoped him to his back with an equilibrium stealing counter right hook to the temple at a similar moment in the third round, and blooded his rival's nose with a head-snapping uppercut in the seventh and final round of a technical knockout victory at the 1:19 mark in defense of his WBO junior middleweight at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Rose was absorbing a beating when referee Michael Griffin stepped in and ended the fight, noticing that the loser's corner men were about to enter the ring to end it.

A southpaw who turned 26 in February, Andrade (21-0, 13 knockouts) simply had too much speed, movement and power for Rose (25-2-1, 7 KOs), 29, whom he dismantled on the undercard of the Ruslan Provodnikov-Chris Algieri fight.

Other than a decent right hand in the first round, and another grazing one in the fifth, Rose had little success even landing against Andrade, who earned the vacant belt rising from a first-round knockdown for a split decision over previously unbeaten Vanes Martirosyan in November.

Saturday's win by Andrade ended an 11-fight winning streak that included three by knockout for Rose, whose only loss was by sixth round knockout aginst Max Maxwell in May 2010.

"I'm the best in the world," Andrade said after the fight. "I was taking my time. I knew my power was affecting him. I took round five off to see the openings, round six, I picked it up, and in round seven, he had to go."

Rose agrees that Andrade is the best at 154 pounds, or at least one of the best of the talented division.

"I earned my right to be here, but Andrade is better than I thought," Rose said. "He may be one of the best out there in the game, right now. I just couldn't keep up with him, and I couldn't keep him off me."

In his previous fight in October, Rose won a split decision over Javier Maciel, who was last in action with a unanimous decision win over Jorge Melendez on the June 7 undercard of Miguel Cotto's 10th-round knockout of Sergio Martinez.