Holmes Takes Wbc Middleweight Crown

Keith Holmes needed only one punch to turn a tactical fight into a smashing championship win.

Holmes used a devastating right hand in the ninth round Saturday night to upset Quincy Taylor and win the WBC middleweight championship in his first bid for a professional title.

The ninth-ranked contender was narrowly ahead on the cards of the three ringside judges when he threw a right-hand counter that put Taylor on the canvas for the first knockdown of the fight.

Taylor, 160, got up but was shaky and Holmes went right after him, landing a succession of head punches that prompted referee Richard Steele to step in and stop the fight at 1:43 of the ninth round.

The fight was on the undercard of Frank Bruno’s WBC heavyweight title defense against former champion Mike Tyson at the MGM Grand hotel.

Michael Carbajal regained the IBF 108-pound title he once held with a lackluster but unanimous decision over Mexico’s Melchor Cob-Castro while Ricardo Lopez retained his WBC 105-pound title in his 15th successful title defense.

Earlier in the day, Bernard Hopkins successfully defended the IBF version of the 160-pound crown with a spectacular fourth-round knockout of top-ranked contender Joe Lipsey. Hopkins was at ringside to watch Holmes pull his upset, and invited him for a fight as he left the ring.

“Let’s eat dinner first, then we’ll talk about it,” replied Holmes.

Holmes (28-1, 18 knockouts), 159, never appeared to hurt Taylor but was ahead by two points on two scorecards and one point on another when the fight was stopped.

In Berlin, a right hook that broke a rib ended 46-year-old Joe Bugner’s latest comeback and his long career. The referee stopped the fight after Scott Welch sent Bugner to the canvas in the sixth round with a stiff right to retain the WBO InterContinental heavyweight title.

Also on the same card, Rolf Rocchigiani, fighting before his hometown fans, floored American Jay Snyder twice in the fourth round to retain the WBO cruiserweight title.

In Glasgow, Scotland, - Briton Naseem Hamed retained his WBO featherweight title by stopping Nigerian Said Lawal in just 31 seconds.