Britain’s Hamzah Sheeraz made a profitable step as much as tremendous middleweight with a damaging fifth-round stoppage victory towards Edgar Berlanga in New York.
Within the different co-main occasion, Shakur Stevenson retained his WBC light-weight world title with a unanimous resolution victory over William Zepeda.
Sheeraz, 26, knocked Berlanga down twice within the fourth spherical and once more in the beginning of the fifth to drive the referee to finish the battle.
The spectacular victory improves Sheeraz’s report to 22-0, with one draw and 18 wins inside the gap.
It was the Briton’s first battle since that draw – towards WBC middleweight champion Carlos Adames in February – after which he determined to make the step as much as tremendous middleweight.
Berlanga’s report is now 23-2 after a second defeat in three fights, with March’s stoppage of Jonathan Gonzalez-Ortiz preceded by a unanimous factors defeat by Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez.
In the meantime, Stevenson comfortably received on all three judges’ scorecards towards Zepeda to make a 3rd defence of his WBC light-weight title.
Two judges scored the bout 118-110 and a 3rd noticed it 119-109 for the 28-year-old American, who improved his unbeaten report to 24-0 with 11 knockouts.
It was a primary profession defeat for Mexican Zepeda, 29, whose report is now 33-1.
The cardboard was held on the Louis Armstrong Stadium, one of many present courts at Flushing Meadows, host venue of the US Open tennis.
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