Rising heavyweight star Filip Hrgovic predictably bashed up gutsy Montenegrin outsider Marko Radonjic for three rounds in a painfully one-sided DAZN main event at the Worthersee Stadium in Klagenfurt, Austria on Friday night.
Croatian Hrgovic (13-0, 11 KOs) scored four knockdowns in the second and another in the third with a body shot before the referee’s timely intervention before the fourth round.
Despite a glossy (though heavily padded) record, Radonjic (22-1, 22 KOs) was thoroughly out of his depth though he kept getting up to his credit.
Former WBA super-middleweight title challenger John Ryder (30-5, 17 KOs) ticked over while waiting for another, anticipated world title shot with a fifth-round stoppage of Slovakian Josef Jurko (8-3, 6 KOs).
Boxing at light-heavyweight, the Islington southpaw systematically broke down the bigger Jurko, who has boxed as a cruiser, with hefty hooks and left uppercuts before the referee stepped in during the fifth with the outgunned Slovakian still on his feet.
Sheffield talent Dalton Smith (9-0, 7 KOs) won as he pleased against Madrid’s over-matched but plucky Brian Pelaez (10-6, 1 KOs) in what was a marking time fight ahead of bigger tests. Scores were 99-91 (all three cards).
Smith, aka ‘Thunder’, travelled past the sixth round for the first time to score valuable rounds in the bank with Pelaez finishing the fight swollen around both eyes, but with his reputation enhanced somewhat after a dogged showing.
Earlier, German 154-pounder Abass Baraou (10-1, 7 KOs) blew out Ghana’s Jay Spencer (11-3, 7 KOs) in one round and Harlow super-middleweight prospect John Hedges shut out Croatia’s Frane Radnic (11-25, 10 KOs) over six rounds (60-54).
Main image: Wasserman Boxing.