Tony Bellew’s dream of becoming a world champion at his beloved Goodison Park soccer ground in Liverpool, England became a reality on Sunday when he knocked out Illunga Makabu in the third round to claim the vacant WBC cruiserweight title.
It did not all as planned, though, for the 33 year-old local hero when he hit the canvas in the opening round. The panic was short lived, however, as the home crowd got behind Bellew, who unleashed a series of right hands to floor Makabu after 1.20 of the third round. The fight was immediately stopped when Makabu failed to throw any punches back and sank to the canvas
On the undercard local heavyweight David Price, 20-3-(17), returned by scoring a second round knockout against Vaclav Pejsar, 9-3-(8). Price decked Pejsar in rounds one and two before the fight was stopped after 1:30.
World ranked super middleweight Callum “Mundo” Smith, 20-0-(15), remained unbeaten by scoring a sixth round stoppage over the very tough Argentine import Cesar Hernan Reynoso , 14-8-3-(7). Smith endured a much tougher than expected night but did deck Reynoso with a left hook in round one and again with body shots in rounds four and five before the fight was stopped in the sixth.. Reynosa posed Smith a few problems on the night and he will be sure to learn from this performance.
Other results
Super featherweight Stephen Smith w tko 7 Daniel Brizuela
Super middleweight Paul Smith w pts 6 Bartlomiej Grafka
Junior welterweight Gerard Carroll w pts 4 Kristian Laight
Lightweight Sean Dodd w pts 10 Pasquale Di Silvio
Junior welterweight Tom Farrell w pts 10 Kofi Yates
Be sure to "LIKE" the SecondsOut Facebook page.
May 28, 2016