By Keith Idec

LAS VEGAS – Curtis Stevens seemed well on his way Saturday night to producing another impressive knockout at T-Mobile Arena.

The hard-hitting middleweight contender from Brooklyn settled for a comparatively mundane, 10-round unanimous decision defeat of a brave-but-overmatched James De La Rosa. Stevens’ punch output dropped noticeably after three terrific rounds to start the first fight on the Sergey Kovalev-Andre Ward pay-per-view undercard.

De La Rosa (23-5, 13 KOs), of San Benito, Texas, made the fight competitive over the final seven rounds, though that appeared to be more the byproduct of Stevens tiring and suffering an injury to his left hand. Stevens (29-5, 21 KOs) told trainer John David Jackson after the fourth round that he hurt it, which prevented him from throwing his most effective punch, his left hook, for much of the remainder of the fight.

Judges Tim Cheatham (98-90), Kermit Bayless (96-92) and Dave Moretti (96-92) all scored the fight for Stevens.

“I give myself a C-minus,” Stevens said. “Could have thrown my jab a little more. I am glad I got the ‘W,’ but I am a little disappointed in myself. The jab was good, but I could have popped that sh*t a little more. Hurt my left hand in the fourth round. He’s got a hard-ass head. But I am glad I got the win.”

The 31-year-old Stevens entered the fight hopeful of recording his second knockout at T-Mobile Arena since it opened earlier this year. He stopped previously unbeaten Brazilian middleweight Patrick Teixeira (26-1, 22 KOs) in the second round on the Canelo Alvarez-Amir Khan undercard May 7.

Stevens needed less than a minute in the first round to catch De La Rosa with a left hook that buckled De La Rosa’s knees and left him holding.

De La Rosa unsuccessfully tried trading with the stronger Stevens before another Stevens left hook floored De La Rosa with about 25 seconds to go in the first round. He answered referee Russell Mora’s count pretty quickly, and by the end of the round connected with a couple power punches of his own to at least keep Stevens mindful that solid shots could come back in his direction.

De La Rosa, who suffered a cut over his left eye in the first round, was able to withstand Stevens’ power better in the second round.

By the beginning of the third round, though, Stevens blitzed De La Rosa with a barrage of body and head punches that hurt him. That’s when Stevens seemed to tire, which allowed De La Rosa to survive the trouble and make it to the fourth round.

De La Rosa fared better during the fourth and fifth rounds. Stevens’ activity dipped significantly in those two rounds, enough that fans fascinated by the first three rounds began booing the sudden lack of action.

Mora deducted a point from Stevens in the eighth round for low blows, though it didn’t make much of a difference on the scorecards.

“I don’t have any comments,” said De La Rosa, apparently displeased with the decision. “People saw what it was.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.