WBA World super flyweight champion Kal Yafai (24-0-0, 15 KO’s) made a third successful defence of his title last night, knocking down David Carmona (21-6-5, 9 KO’s) four times en route to a seventh round TKO in Fresno, California.
Yafai, who was making his debut on US soil, began the bout in electric fashion, dropping Carmona in the opening session with a left hook to the top of the head. Carmona would pull himself up off the canvas and rally; catching Yafai with a thunderous left hook that seemed to hurt the champion in a wild, back-and-forth first round.
After being reprimanded in his corner between rounds, Yafai would clear his head and go on to outbox Carmona from the second round onwards, landing an array of straight shots that pierced the guard of his opponent.
Carmona – who weighed-in more than 3lbs over the 115lbs limit – enjoyed moments of sporadic success, landing some heavy blows in the third to keep Yafai honest. However, the champion would show his class throughout the remainder of the contest, forcing Carmona to chase him with some tricky footwork, before sending him down for the second time in the fourth – though, on replay, the shot seemed to be below the belt-line.
A sharp two-punch combination in the fifth round send Carmona to the canvas once again, though Yafai would be deducted a point shortly after firstly sending Carmona down with another low blow, before hitting him while he was down.
Undeterred by the docked point, Yafai continued to apply the pressure to his now ailing opponent in search of a stoppage, and a dominant seventh round saw the challenger’s team pull him out at the end of the session, handing Yafai the TKO victory.
After IBF World champion Jerwin Ancajas also made a successful defence of his title on the card, Yafai will now look ahead to a potential unification showdown with the emerging Filipino star. Also, with former pound-for-pound kingpin Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez now mandatory for his WBA strap, it would appear the Birmingham-man has significant options as he looks to make a splash on a stacked super flyweight division.