South Africa’s Zolani Tete smashed Jason Cunningham to defeat in four rounds to win the Commonwealth, WBO International and IBF International featherweight titles at the OVO Arena in London on Saturday.
Cunningham did very little through the first three rounds, with Tete boxing from behind his southpaw jab.
However, in round four, the South African scored a knockdown with an overhand right.
Cunningham beat the count but after another barrage of punches, the South African sent him down with his head bouncing off the canvas as the referee waived the fight off at 34 seconds into the round.
Tete improved his record to 30-4; 23 and Cunningham’s record dropped to 31-7; 7.
On the same card, the WBO No 1 and WBC No 2 heavyweight Joe Joyce (14-0; 13) returned to action after being out for a year to win on a fourth-round stoppage against Christian Hammer (27-10; 17).
Hammer was down in the third round and then three times in the fourth round before the fight was stopped at 1:20 into the round.
Lightweight Mark Chamberlain (11-0; 7) won on points over 10 rounds against Marc Vidal (13-3-5; 5) to win the IBF European title.
OPETAIA WINS IBF CRUISERWEIGHT BELT
Against the odds, IBF No 3 cruiserweight Jai Opetaia (22-0; 17) won the IBF cruiserweight belt against defending champion 37-year-old Maris Breidis (29-2; 20) on a unanimous 12-round points decision on Saturday at the Gold Coast Convention Centre in Queensland, Australia.
Opetaia suffered a broken jaw in the bout but won with scores of 116-112, 115-113 and 116-112.
VALLADARES WINS IBF MINIMUMWEIGHT BELT IN MEXICO
Daniel Valladares (26-3-1, 15) of Mexico outscored defending IBF minimumweight champion Rene Mark Cuarto (20-3-2; 11) with a 12-round split decision on Friday night in Monterrey Nuevo Leon, Mexico.
The scores were 116-111, 115-112 for Valladares and 114-113 for Cuarto.