Feel free to question his methods, but never let it be said that Elijah Pierce is a boring fighter.
In Friday’s southpaw summit in the OTX main event at The Tabernacle in Atlanta, Pierce overcame a first-round knockdown, a questionable approach and the lionhearted will of Michael Dasmarinas to score a ninth-round knockout win in a thrilling featherweight bout.
The end came at 2 minutes and 1 second of the decisive round, and despite taking the scenic route to arrive there, Pierce claimed the destination was never in doubt.
“Sometimes we go through adversity,” Pierce said in his post-fight interview with broadcaster DAZN. “It is what it is. That's the life of a fighter, and I'm gonna continue to fight every single time. Nobody is gonna deter me. I keep saying it over and over: Nobody's gonna beat me. You're not stopping me. I don't care who you with. Step in the ring with me. I'm gonna put you on your ass.”
But first, it was Pierce who visited his back side. After getting hung up on a Dasmarinas jab when he threw his own right hook to the body, Pierce got caught with a straight left before he could recover. Pierce – an Oklahoma City native not fighting out of Lawrenceville, Kansas – rose quickly, sucked in a long breath and thumped his gloves. When referee Malik Waleed gave his blessing, Pierce waded dutifully back into the fight.
Dasmarinas, from Pili, Camarines Sur, Philippines, tested Pierce’s resolve, just to be certain, firing away at his body and then moving up top as the final seconds of the round drained away and Pierce returned to his corner, humbled but unhurt.
It quickly became apparent, despite Dasmarinas’ solid knockout rate, that Pierce didn’t have much to fear from his power. But the younger, more explosive fighter (who also enjoyed a 4ins reach advantage) failed to capitalize, too often lunging, leading with his left hand and throwing single punches at a time. In fact, it was Dasmarinas who was fighting what should have been Pierce’s fight – jabbing to set up tactical body attacks and changing levels to keep his opponent guessing.
Seemingly caught somewhere between sluggishness and uncertainty, Pierce struggled to gain traction in the early rounds. Even after a comparatively slower fourth, Dasmarinas appeared to edge Pierce just before the bell with a pair of unanswered combinations. After the 10-8 first round, Dasmarinas had a helluva head start – while Pierce was at risk of running out of runway.
Pierce continued to coast in the fifth, seemingly waiting for something to happen rather than manufacturing opportunities. Although he stalked Dasmarinas, that seemed to be the extent of his plan. Pierce swung wildly, dangled his gloves low when Dasmarinas returned fire and came away from the round with the reward of a bleeding cut from a clash of heads between the fighters.
“The whole thing was, we did have a different game plan,” Pierce said. “I was supposed to move a lot more, [and] I did feel sluggish. … I can't make excuses. I'm still working. I'm still learning a lot of stuff. This is the game – you gotta learn.”
But the stamina of the 28-year-old Pierce compared to that of the 32-year-old (and relatively grizzled) Dasmarinas began to show. Combined with Pierce’s power, an engine that never stopped roaring in Friday’s headliner eventually helped him overtake his more calculated opponent. It didn’t hurt that Pierce began prioritizing his jab, opening the seventh with a couple of hard sticks to Dasmarinas’ mug and then following another jab and an immediate left hand over the top. Dasmarinas, who had bounced quickly on his feet to escape danger and work intelligent angles through the fight’s first half, was suddenly standing on flat feet, leaning back to avoid punches and welcoming clinches.
Though Dasmarinas remained the busier puncher, the subtle shift in his mobility allowed Pierce to land more flush shots and sit down on his body punches, quickly compounding Dasmarinas’ troubles. On his stool during one late break, Dasmarinas huffed deep breaths through an open mouth when he wasn’t taking in water, quickly spitting it out with a mixture of blood.
To open the ninth, Pierce tore into Dasmarinas with a right hook to the body, but Dasmarinas responded by whipping a left cross through Pierce’s jaw. Slowed and unable to spin off the ropes as he did early in the fight, however, Dasmaranis began wilting under Pierce’s hammering shots – even when partially blocked by arms, elbows and gloves. An uppercut to Dasmarinas’ solar plexus took what was left of the wind from his sails, and Pierce sensed it. He pursued his man to the ropes and fired a four-punch combination ending in a right hook to Dasmarinas’ temple.
When Dasmarinas attempted to clinch, Pierce raked him with another left hook, and by then Dasmarinas was looking for the eject button. Pierce went after him, making contact with nothing that much resembled a punch but bouncing Dasmarinas off the ropes nonetheless. The Filipino dropped to all fours, exhausted. When he clambered to his feet, referee Waleed gave Dasmarinas a final chance – and then Pierce snatched it away. Keeping the heat on, Pierce manifested his moment, driving a right hand flush into Dasmarinas’ belly, then instantly turning it over into a hook that spun the Filipino’s head and sent him sprawling, flat on his back under the bottom rope.
“I'm gonna be honest: My father,” Pierce said, “one thing that I love about having my dad on my corner is that he can hit a certain emotion in me. He can bring that real dog out of me. All he had to do was tell me, ‘Son, go fucking get him. Go get him.’ As soon as he told me that, I had to hit the switch in my mind, my heart and I had to turn it on. I got him out of there.”
Dasmarinas, who lost his second in a row to slip to 36-5-2 (25 KOs), has never been quite the same since being starched by Naoya Inoue in 2021. Where he goes from here isn’t entirely clear, but another concussive knockout should give him pause.
Meanwhile, it’s characteristically full speed ahead for Pierce, 21-2 (17 KOs), who began contemplating the matchups that could soon materialize before him, including rival and featherweight titleholder Stephen Fulton, as well as another belt holder at 126 in Nick Ball.
“And of course, I still want Inoue,” Pierce said. “I want to fight the best. And ain't nothing wrong with me wanting to challenge the best. I feel like I am the best, and I want to step in there and prove it. I'll fight any-damn-body.”
Jason Langendorf is the former Boxing Editor of ESPN.com, was a contributor to Ringside Seat and the Queensberry Rules, and has written about boxing for Vice, The Guardian, Chicago Sun-Times and other publications. A member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, he can be found at LinkedIn and followed on X and Bluesky.
