NEW YORK (AP) Hamzah Sheeraz punctuated the primary boxing card held on the grounds of the U.S. Open tennis event by stopping Edgar Berlanga within the fifth spherical Saturday night time.

The English fighter moved up in weight to make his debut at tremendous middleweight and confirmed he has loads of energy for it, dropping Berlanga twice within the fourth spherical after which pouncing rapidly to begin the fifth earlier than referee David Fields stopped the combat.

Sheeraz (22-0-1, 18 KOs) has been touted as a possible opponent for 168-pound champion Canelo Alvarez and wouldn’t solely deserve it however have an opportunity to win if if he appeared pretty much as good as he did in opposition to Berlanga (23-2), who had boasted that he would have a straightforward night time.

Within the co-main occasion, Shakur Stevenson remained undefeated and defended his WBC light-weight title with a dominant efficiency, beating William Zepeda by unanimous resolution.

One decide favored Stevenson 119-109, whereas the opposite two had it 118-110 for the 2016 Olympic silver medalist.

Stevenson (24-0) gained simply earlier than Berlanga and Sheeraz fought within the ultimate bout of the night time in Louis Armstrong Stadium, the No. 2 venue on the USTA Billie Jean King Nationwide Tennis Heart.

However it was a foremost event-level efficiency from Stevenson and the primary broad victory of the night time after the earlier two bouts have been shut proper to the end.

Zepeda (33-1) landed a left hand shortly after the opening bell that drew a smile from the champion, and he was in a position to get inside numerous occasions to unload a collection of pictures at Stevenson. However he was usually powerless to cease the flurries that have been coming again at him from Stevenson’s hand velocity that’s up on the high of boxing.

The Ring Journal held its second combat card in New York after staging one in Occasions Sq. in Might. Tickets weren’t bought then and only a few hundred folks have been in a position to see it, creating an environment the place the scene was spectacular however the sounds have been virtually non-existent, leaving fighters to say it felt like a sparring session.

This time, seats have been bought and lots of have been occupied properly into the second deck of the 14,000-seat stadium, which had its retractable roof closed to create comfy situations on a damp day.

And the followers noticed good motion early in an excellent efficiency from Stevenson, who has been criticized at occasions for a mode that that appears too depending on avoiding ache and never dishing it out.

However he appeared completely happy to commerce Saturday and most occasions got here out forward when he did.

Zepeda did entice Stevenson in a nook to attain with some pictures within the third spherical, bringing his Mexican followers out of their seats, however many different occasions Stevensons fast head motion allowed him to dodge potential bother. By the center of the combat, Stevenson was firing off two, three, generally 4 unreturned pictures

There was a title change within the earlier combat, when Subriel Matias (23-2) edged Alberto Puello (24-1) by majority resolution to take the WBC’s 140-pound belt.

Earlier than that, Cuban David Morrell (12-1) obtained up from a fifth-round knockdown to rally late and edge Imam Khataev (10-1) by cut up resolution in a light-weight heavyweight bout.

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AP boxing: https://apnews.com/boxing