Frank Sanchez fought through a shaky first round to drop Scott Alexander at the start of round two on his way to a fourth-round stoppage win.
Alexander rattled Sanchez in the opening session, but the heavily-favoured Sanchez weathered the storm, took over in the second – dropping Alexander at the start of the round – and Sanchez began to turn the screws in the third.
Alexander’s enthusiasm and ambition slowly started to desert him and Sanchez was loading up with big shots trying to put the heavyweight from Los Angeles out of his misery.
Eventually, Alexander was halted following a violent volley of blows at the end of the round and it was initially unclear if the bell saved Alexander or if his corner had seen enough and waved it off.
Time of the stoppage was 3.00 of the fourth.
Sanchez, “The Cuban Flash”, is now 22-0 (16) while Alexander slips to 17-6-2 (9).
Earlier in the evening, Ukraine’s former light-heavyweight champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk, 20-1 (16) stopped Brazilian Isaac Rodriguez, 28-5, after 54 seconds of the second round.
Gvozdyk was having his third fight this year and his third since suffering a brain injury against Artur Beterbiev in Philadelphia in 2019. Gvozdyk is 36-years-old.
Super-welterweight Terrell Gausha improved to 24-3-1 with a majority decision win over Alabama’s KeAndrae Leatherwood. Gausha won their eight-rounder 78-74 on two cards while one judge scored a draw at 76 apiece. Leatherwood is now 23-9-1.
