Irish middleweight Andy Lee stretched his unbeaten run to 12 fights after stopping American James Morrow in the first round in Chicago in the early hours of this morning (Irish time).
The 22-year-old Limerick southpaw dropped Morrow with a stiff left to the body mid way through the first, but the Indiana born puncher beat the count.
However, Morrow went down again following a left to the head from Lee near the end of the round and the ref stopped the contest.
Lee, who fights out of the Detroit Kronk under legendary coach Emanuel Steward, said he was delighted with the victory.
He said: 'This win takes me a step closer toward realising my ambition of winning a world title.
'Morrow was very tentative and he wasn't taking any chances and kept himself well covered up from the opening bell.
'But I caught him with a good body shot and he went down and then I connected with another left to the head and he went down again and it was all over.
'It was another early night for me, and it may have looked easy, but then I have been training for hours every day for over a month before this fight and that's why I was so sharp.'
Lee will be back in Chicago later this month to cheer on the Irish amateur boxing team at the World Championships and Olympic qualifiers which begin at the University of Illinois on 23 October.
The ex-St Francis Limerick southpaw was the only boxer from Ireland to qualify for the last Olympics, and says he will be keeping his fingers crossed for the 11-man Irish squad.
He added: 'I know how hard the Irish squad have worked for this and I will be in Chicago to cheer them on. Fingers crossed we can get as many boxers as possible qualified for next years Olympics in Beijing.'
