James Tennyson picked himself up off the canvas to knock Martin J Ward out in the fifth round to secure the European & WBA International Super-Featherweight title in London.
Fighting on the undercard of the Tony Bellew versus David Haye pay-per-view heavyweight clash at the O2 Arena, Tennyson, once again, showed his ferocious knock-out ability to dispatch the dangerous Ward mid-way through the scheduled 12-rounder.
The Belfast boxer was in trouble in the second round following a perfect body shot from Ward, which forced 'The Assasin' to take a count, however, Tennyson worked his way back into the fight in the third and fourth rounds, before completing the job in the following stanza.
Ward went into the fight unbeaten in his first 21 fights and was unable to recover from a volley of shots from the Belfast man who had his man pinned up against the ropes following a knock-down.
The referee felt there was little option other than to stop the fight to hand Tennyson his 22nd victory and put him in world title contention.
Earlier at the London venue, Irish prospect Carl McDonald was beaten on points by the in-form Jordan Gill.
The Irish super-bantamweight took the fight at the last minute against the English prospect and did his reputation no harm by taking the fight through the scheduled six rounds.
McDonald is set to fight in Dublin next month for a BUI Celtic title.
