If junior lightweight prospect Lamont Roach Jr. fought with nerves and butterflies before a hometown crowd, he masked it very well Thursday night. Roach outclassed Rey Perez for 10 rounds, winning a one-sided decision at the MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

After recently fighting in Southern California and Las Vegas, Roach was fighting near his hometown for the first time in almost two years. Roach was born in Washington, D.C. and currently resides in nearby Upper Marlboro, Maryland.

Roach (16-0, 6 knockouts) was effective fighting from the center of the ring, easily outboxing the Filipino fighter. Perez pressed the action, but Roach easily outboxed him, scoring repeatedly with left hooks to the head.

Perez (21-9, 6 KOs), who has now lost five of his last seven bouts, went down to the canvas in round five, but referee Bill Clancy ruled he went down from a slip.

Perez looked like he was in survival mode during the final rounds of the fight, looking to land one punch at a time as Roach walked him back against the ropes.

All three judges scored the bout 99-91 in favor of Roach.

“I feel good after a good performance like that,” said Roach, who fought just over two months ago. “In the second round, he hit me with a really good body shot. But I stayed composed and got myself together. I’d been through that before, and I’ve sparred with bigger people. True fighters know how to recover and get back to their game plan, and that’s what I did. I used the time to recover, and got back to what I was doing to get the victory.”

In the opening bout of the “Golden Boy Boxing on ESPN” telecast, junior lightweight Avery Sparrow won a 10-round unanimous decision over Jose Lopez.

Sparrow (9-1, 3 KOs) outboxed the taller Lopez during the first half of the fight, utilizing head movement that befuddled Lopez at times. Sensing he was down in the fight during the second half of the fight, Lopez (19-2-1, 14 KOs) pressed the fight, finding some success with right hands to the head.

Scores were 96-94, 96-94, and 97-93 for Sparrow, who is from Philadelphia and has won his last five bouts.

In non-televised action, featherweight Manuel ‘Tino’ Avila (23-1, 8 KOs) won an eight-round unanimous decision over veteran Diuhl Olguin (12-8-3, 9 KOs). Scores were 78-74, 78-74, and 77-75 for Avila, who was fighting for the first time since his unanimous decision loss to Joseph Diaz Jr. on May 6.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for RingTV.com since October of 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (Calif.) Star newspaper, Boxingscene.com, and FightNights.com. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing