Caleb Plant lived up to his name by planting Anthony Dirrell on the canvas with ten seconds left of the ninth round.
After being ribbed over his power, Plant unleashed an excruciating uppercut that was worrying when it first landed.
Dirrell was prone and out of it for a few seconds after the referee called the fight off.
Caleb Plant title shot
Plant is back in the big time with the victory and on his way to another title shot.
Prior to Caleb Plant, heavyweight force Frank Sanchez landed a hellacious shot in the ninth round sending Carlos Negron through the ropes.
Before the fight-ending blow, Sanchez seemed the most likely to get the knockout from the pair.
Negron rose from the blow. However, it only took a minor threat for the referee to step in and save Negron from further punishment.
Sanchez is now 21 wins without defeat and remains on the path to a world heavyweight title opportunity.
Gary Antonio Russell looked out of sorts as he struggled to get to grips with the style of Manny Rodriguez. Russell kept losing rounds as trainer, brother, and former world champion Gary Russell tried to snap him out of it.
Rodriguez racked up the rounds until the eighth, when a superbly timed shot put Russell down hard. The bell rang as the count continued, but Russell just made it.
As Russell got time to recover, he was still on shaking legs in the ninth. Then, the same incident that halted their first meeting earlier this year in 16 seconds happened again.
A sickening accidental clash of heads put Rodriguez out of commission as he broke a cheekbone and was forced out of the fight.
Wilder vs Helenius on FS1
Officials went to the scorecards to count nine completed rounds and two seconds of the tenth. Rodriguez won by technical decision margins of 100-90, 99-91, and 97-93.
In the final bout of the FS1 prelims, Vito Mielnicki Jr cruised to a victory over Limberth Ponce to go 13-1.
Mielnicki was too slick and too good for Ponce over the ten rounds and could move on to more demanding challenges.
Through their eighth-round clash, Michel Rivera had way too much in his locker for Jerry Perez. Rivera was in a dominant mood and didn’t lose a session.
The Muhammad Ali lookalike capped off his performance with a knockdown in the final seconds.
Rivera took it 80-71 and 79-72 [twice] with the judges.
At 24-0, the lightweight can undoubtedly begin to step up his opposition in preparation for a title shot.
Early action:
Gurgen Hovhannisyan survived a third-round wobble to overcome Michael Coffie in the sixth round.
The California-based Armenian heavyweight returned fire to begin to wear down Coffie eventually. By the sixth round, Coffie was dog tired, and Hovhannisyan could see the victory.
Geovany Bruzon suffered a defeat to James Evans at heavyweight. Evans got the job done in the third after hurting Bruzon in the previous round.
Not so much a shock as Evans remains undefeated in six fights. However, Bruzon was expected to be victorious in the pre-fight predictions.
Michael Angeletti prevailed in a battle of unbeaten super-bantamweights, stopping Jeremy Adorno after five rounds.
Angeletti moves to 7-0 as Adorno drops to 7-1.
WBN Editor Phil Jay has over ten years of boxing news experience. Follow WBN on Facebook @officialworldboxingnews, Instagram, and Twitter @worldboxingnews.
