Blair Cobbs dropped Maurice Hooker three times en route to a well-deserved unanimous decision over Maurice Hooker on the Vergil Ortiz-Michael McKinson undercard on Saturday night at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.

Scores were 97-90, 97-90, and 96-91 for Cobbs, who improves to 16-1-1, 10 knockouts.

Towards the end of the opening round, the southpaw Cobbs hurt Hooker with a left uppercut, followed by an overhand right to the head. A barrage of punches eventually dropped Hooker to the canvas. Hooker was able to beat the count and make it out of the round.

Early in the second round, a straight left hand that split the guard of Hooker dropped him to the canvas. Hooker beat the count, and tried to work behind a steady jab to the head during the round, but was dropped to the canvas again by a combination to the head, culminating with a left hand to the head.

THREE KNOCKDOWNS IN TWO ROUNDS FOR BLAIR COBBS 🔥 pic.twitter.com/HYoOzDIVx6

— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) August 7, 2022

Cobbs continued to dominate the action, during the middle rounds, even stunning Hooker a few times during the fifth round. Each time Hooker threw a punch, Cobbs slipped underneath and countered with a right hook to the head.

Cobbs faced adversity during the early moments of the sixth round as a cut opened over the left eye of Cobbs from an accidental clash of heads. There was also swelling underneath the right eye of Cobbs, and Hooker began to unleash hard right hands to the head. Undaunted, Cobbs kept his composure going into the latter stages of the fight, working from distance and outboxing Hooker.

Despite being down on the scorecards, Hooker did not let his hands go as much as he should have during the second half of the fight. Friend and stablemate, WBO world welterweight titleholder Terence Crawford, implored Hooker to let his hands go in between rounds. It was not until the 10th round when Hooker threw more punches, but Cobbs had accumulated enough rounds to come out with the win.

After the conclusion of the fight, Cobbs let out a yell from the center of the ring.

The fight was fought at a catchweight of 150 pounds after Hooker let Golden Boy Promotions, who promoted the fight, earlier in the week that he would not be able to make the contract weight of 147 pounds. Hooker reportedly gave Cobbs $15,000 as a penalty and for the fight to go on.

Cobbs was coming off a knockout loss to Alexis Rocha in his last bout on March 19 in Los Angeles. He would make the switch to co-trainer Roger Romo, along with Cicilio and Adam Flores, preparing for the Hooker fight in Camarillo, California, located next to the boxing hotbed of Oxnard.

Hooker, who resides in nearby Dallas, drops to 27-3-3, 18 KOs. He has now lost three of his last four bouts.

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