Artur Beterbiev stopped Anthony Yarde in the eighth round of a stunning fight on Saturday night in London.
The British challenger put up a stunning effort in a brutal battle, but the Russian-Canadian champion proved too strong for him in the end.
The fight began with an aggressive start from Beterbiev as he pursued Yarde around the ring.
The challenger was happy to box on the back foot and countered well with a couple of notable left hooks early on.
The champion responded with some hard hooks of his own towards the end of the opening round.
In the second, a similar pattern emerged as Yarde had success with counter left hooks when the reckless Beterbiev launched his attacks.
The Russian-Canadian was unbothered though and continued marching forward, happy to take punches in order to land them.
Beterbiev then cornered Yarde and a firefight briefly broke out with both men exchanging heavy artillery.
The Brit’s uppercuts caught the eye amid the thrilling back-and-forth action.
In round three, Yarde stood in the middle of the ring, gaining confidence in his battle with Beterbiev.
But the champion landed a huge left hook which appeared to stagger the challenger just as the bell went.
At the start of the fourth, Beterbiev looked to capitalise and hammered Yarde with a series of big hooks which hurt him.
The Brit was roared on by his home crowd and remained on his feet, weathering the storm.
In round five, the pace of the fight appeared to be getting to both men and Yarde especially looked fatigued.
Despite this, he caught Beterbiev’s attention with a fierce counter which momentarily put him on the back foot.
Incredibly, Yarde then hammered Beterbiev with a massive right hand and had the champion staggered.
This time, it was he who weathered the storm and then turned things around by cornering Yarde and smashing him with a huge uppercut.
The bell rang to end the early contender for Round of the Year.
Beterbiev picked up where he left off and cut Yarde’s right eye with a big overhand right early in the sixth.
Again though, the Brit refused to wilt and the pair continued to exchange as they hit the halfway point.
In round seven, Yarde started on the front foot and cut Beterbiev above his left eye.
The champion’s pace appeared to have seriously slowed while the challenger remarkably kept coming.
All of a sudden though, Beterbiev came out of his shell and launched a fresh assault on Yarde, hurting him once again against the ropes.
The bell was a relief to both men.
In the eighth, Beterbiev made the difference with a sensational shot which staggered Yarde.
The champion followed up with a series of blows which put the challenger down.
Yarde beat the count and tried to fight on, but was on the end of another assault from Beterbiev and his trainer jumped up onto the ring apron to stop the fight.
Beterbiev is now 19-0 with 19 KOs, retaining his WBC, IBF and WBO light-heavyweight world titles.
