Wladimir Klitschko again showed he is a major force in the heavyweight division, recording a 10th-round technical knockout of American Jameel McCline to retain his World Boxing Organization (WBO) title on Saturday.
The Ukrainian, whose elder brother Vitali is set to challenge Britain's Lennox Lewis for the world heavyweight crown in March, dominated the contest before flooring McCline late in the 10th round.
PHOTO: AFP
Klitschko, who had Vitali helping out in his corner, landed two left hooks in the 10th, another left and then a right that put McCline on the canvas.
PHOTO: AP
McCline's corner refused to allow their fighter to continue for the 11th.
Klitschko, who has won 40 of his 41 bouts, 37 by knockout, took nine of the 10 rounds according to two of the judges. The third had him winning eight rounds.
It was Klitschko's fifth consecutive successful defense of his WBO title and earned him US$975,000, plus a similar bonus from backers in Germany, which has been his main base of operations.
McCline, who lost for the third time in his 34-bout professional career, got US$1.1 million for the fight.
On the same bill, lightning-like speed was enough to give Floyd Mayweather Jr. the edge over Jose Luis Castillo, as the American retained his World Boxing Council (WBC) lightweight crown as well as an unbeaten record after 29 professional fights.
The unanimous decision for the 25-year-old champion came on two 115-113 scorecards and 116-113 on the third in the close 12-round contest.
It was a rematch of a similar close fight in April in which Mayweather won the WBC title from Castillo.
The champion was booed for a good portion of the fight as his conservative style failed to win over the fans.
Mayweather Jr. earned US$2.4 million for the title defense while Castillo was paid US$150,000 plus a percentage of Mexican television proceeds.
Castillo, whose straight-ahead aggressiveness kept him in the fight, saw his record fall to 46 wins, six losses and a draw, with 42 knockouts. Mayweather had been a 3-1 favorite to beat him.
Until his narrow win over Castillo in April, Mayweather had been regarded by many boxing analysts as perhaps the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world.
The fight had originally been slated as the main event but was put lower on the card after Mayweather failed to appear at a pre-bout press conference.
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