Olympic gold medalist Tony Yoka proved his heavyweight credentials against an opponent Deontay Wilder halted late.
Yoka blew away an old-looking Johann Duhaupas inside one round. Duhaupas had previously gone eleven rounds with Deontay Wilder, the distance with Jarrell Miller, WBA’ regular’ champion Manuel Charr and knocked out Robert Helenius.
Duhaupas tried to use a high guard to work his way inside early on. Yoka found the target with some jabs, but within the first twenty seconds of the round, he took a warning for using his forearms to push Duhaupas away.
Duhaupas then stood against the ropes hiding behind his guard, which provided Yoka with a stationary target, and Yoka landed a series of clubbing rights to the head. They saw Duhaupas slump to the canvas on his hands and knees.
He was up quickly but looked unsteady, and Yoka staggering him with a right and then pounded him with hooks and uppercuts before more rights to the head.
Finally, a right uppercut sent Duhaupas back and down, and the referee waived the fight over after just 87 seconds.
The referee then stupidly got into an argument with Duhaupas and his team. They quarreled over why the fight ended.
Six quick wins in a row for the 6’7″ 28-year-old Yoka as he adds Duhaupas to his list of victims, which includes Alex Dimitrenko and Mike Wallisch.
Impressive on paper but Duhaupas looked a shot fighter. In only his second fight in over two years, and he showed all of his 39 years.
The Deontay Wilder performance is way behind him.
Farrhad Saad vs. Diego Natchoo
Saad outboxed an aggressive Natchoo to take the unanimous decision.
Natchoo tried to overwhelm Saad with all-out aggression and scored with some wicked body shots and overarm rights.
Saad used his longer reach to score at a distance and countered the advancing Natchoo with some hard hooks.
Natchoo maintained the pressure and a high work rate. But he left too many gaps and had to eat plenty of jabs and counters as he walked in.
Saad kept moving and switching guards with Natchoo to pin Saad to the ropes to work inside but not succeeding often enough.
Saad slowed in the fifth under the constant pressure from Natchoo. But in the sixth, Natchoo also looked an exhausted fighter.
They battered each other in the seventh as if it was the last round with Natchoo just having the edge, but Saad boxed his way through the final moments to win a unanimous decision.
Although short on professional experience, Saad has represented France at Cadet, Junior, Youth, and Senior level. He fought for Paris United in the World Series of Boxing.
Former undefeated French champion Natchoo was unbeaten in his last twelve fights.
