Errol Spence Jr did something Manny Pacquiao and Amir Khan failed to do against Chris Algieri.
Spence capped a dominating performance by stopping Algieri with 48 seconds remaining in the fifth round in a welterweight fight on Saturday night at the Barclays Center in the main event of the Premier Boxing Champions card.
Spence (20-0) had his seventh straight knockout and 17th overall and did so against an opponent who went the distance against Pacquiao and Khan. Six of Spence’s past seven knockouts have been in the fifth round or earlier and a quick end seemed possible once the 26-year-old started using his quickness in the early rounds.
Photo: AFP
“It meant a lot to get the stoppage,” Spence said. “I did something Manny Pacquiao couldn’t do, nor Amir Khan. That shows where I’m at in the welterweight division. Everyone wanted to see what I could do against a proven fighter and I blew him out of the water.”
Facing his most established opponent, the former Olympian won a one-sided fight. He connected on 41 percent of his punches including 32 in the final two rounds.
“He brought some good stuff tonight,” Algieri said. “He stayed composed and that was a big part of it.”
Algieri withstood some blows, but the end approached in the fourth. Spence dropped him in the fourth with a short overhand left and knocked him down again early in the fifth.
“It was pretty one-sided,” Spence said.
The end came when Spence delivered a left hook to Algeri’s face. The hard shot sent Algieri spiraling to the canvas and referee Benjy Esteves did not hesitate to stop the fight.
For Algieri (21-3) it was his third loss in four fights since winning a split decision from Ruslan Provodikov for the WBO junior welterweight championship on June 14, 2013, in Brooklyn. He withstood getting knocked down six times by Pacquiao and went the distance against Khan, but facing Spence, Algieri had few answers.
In the first fight, Poland’s Krzysztof Glowacki (26-0) retained his WBO cruiserweight championship by outslugging Steve Cunnigham (28-8-1) and getting a unanimous decision in his first title defense.
Also, Marcus Browne (18-0) won a split decision over Serbia’s Radivoje Kalajdzic in a light heavyweight fight.
FEATHERWEIGHTS
AFP, LONDON
Josh Warrington said he wanted to face Lee Selby for his fellow Briton’s International Boxing Federation world featherweight title after gaining a unanimous points decision over Japan’s Hisashi Amagasa on Saturday.
Fighting in front of his home town crowd in Leeds, England, Warrington topped all three judges’ scorecards by margins of 117-111, 118-111 and 121-107, with the latter score especially tough on the gutsy Amagasa, boxing outside of Japan for the first time.
Warrington made a sound start, but Amagasa, using his height and reach advantage to good effect, then came back into the contest.
Nevertheless, Warrington opened a cut above Amagasa’s right eye in the 11th round, although by that stage he was well ahead with the judges in any event.
Now the Yorkshireman wants to take on Wales’s Selby, who retained his world title in London earlier this month, recovering to beat Eric Hunter on points after the American dropped him to the canvas in the second round.
“There’s a little bit of learning to be done,” Warrington said after seeing off Amagasa.
As for taking on Selby, he added: “It’s a fight that Leeds people want, it’s a fight that I want. I think I’ve got what it takes to beat him.”
SUPER MIDDLEWEIGHTS
AFP, BERLIN
World super middleweight champion Felix Sturm on Saturday said he was shocked to have tested positive for an anabolic steroid after his win over Russia’s Fedor Chudinov in February last year.
The 37-year-old German was found to have the steroid Hydro-XY Stanozolol in his A sample following his majority decision rematch win over Chudinov in Oberhausen on Feb. 20 for the WBA super middleweight belt.
His victory saw him become the first German to be a world champion five times having also held the WBA and WBO middleweight titles.
“At first I was shocked,” Sturm told reporters, having learned of his failed test via an e-mail from the World Boxing Association on Friday night. “This is all very strange, especially as it has taken eight weeks to be informed of the result.”
“Also, the Association of German professional boxers [BDB], who hosted the bout, were not informed, only my trainer and I,” he said.
He now faces a two-year ban, providing the B sample shows a positive result, which could spell an end to his career.
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