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Liam Smith-Hassan Mwakinyo Result And Highlights: Smith Wins With Bizarre Stoppage

Written by Elliot Foster on 3rd September 2022.

Liam Smith

Liam Smith reiterated his credentials for another world title shot with a bizarre fourth-round stoppage win.

The former WBO super-welterweight world champion, who was last in action in April, took on former sparring partner Hassan Mwakinyo.

Smith, who was fighting for the first time since inking a promotional deal with Boxxer and Sky Sports, secured a finish after one minute and 46 seconds of the fourth round – but it was something of a controversial end.

The fight was fought on pretty even terms in the first three rounds, with both doing good work.

Mwakinyo, the Tanzanian former IBO champion, is best known for his shock win over Sam Eggington in Birmingham four years ago.

He was working a bit better than expected against a man in ‘Beefy’ who had previously shared plenty of rounds with him prior to Saturday night’s encounter at the M&S Bank Arena.

The visitor slipped at the end of the third and it appeared that he injured his ankle, but then continued fighting with a rally of hard shots.

During the fourth round, though, he was down twice. Mwakinyo went down of his own accord on both occasions – potentially because of the ankle injury – and the fight was waved off by referee Victor Loughlin.

The stoppage was protested by the Mwakinyo corner but he’s now 20-3 with 14 quick, while Smith advances to 32-3-1, 19 KOs).

All the way through fight week, the talk was of spar between the pair. Smith refused to divulge the story ahead of fight night but once the fight was over, he revealed that Mwakiyo had quit in a sparring session previously.

He was speaking to Sky Sports in the aftermath, stating that he believes that he should be unbeaten since losing to Jaime Munguia.

“I don’t know what happened. I didn’t really do too much early on because Hassan was wild, I’m a bit gutted I never gave the fans a proper finish, but it’s out of my hands.

“He said he slipped, he just quit, it doesn’t take a genius to work that out.

“I said about the sparring story, I knew he had it in him.”

A fight against Chris Eubank Jr. or another super-welterweight world title shot is now high on the hit list of the 34-year-old.