Nishant Dev, who has the boxing hopes of India on his shoulders, scored a first-round knockout of Cesar Diaz to open the main card of the Anthony Joshua-Kristian Prenga bill in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Southpaw Dev was out of the blocks early with his jab and his Peruvian opponent was on the front foot but Diaz took a few lefts to the body early on and was crumpled by a cluster of shots with 70 seconds left in the opener.
Diaz looked reluctant, now, and he was then put flat on his back by a short left uppercut. While Diaz made it back to his feet, Dev followed up and dumped Diaz a third and final time and the bout was called off.
Diaz is now 10-3 (5 KOs), while Dev improved to 7-0 (5 KOs).
“Every time I’m learning something new, I’m l learning things that make me better each fight,” Dev said. “People around the world, they say that no Indian fighter has been world champion, so now I’m going to go out there and tell them I’m going to be champion of the world.”
Danish contender Jacob Bank improved to 20-0 (11 KOs) after an eight-round decision over Pawel August.
August, now 18-1 (7 KOs), a Pole who resides in England, was a step behind throughout and Bank, rated No. 2 by both the WBC and the WBO, and 13 with the IBF, continued his fine form which includes victories over Tyron Zeuge and William Scull in two of his last three fights. Bank was boxing outside of Denmark for the first time and said that was behind his slow start but he won their eight-rounder by scores of 80-72.
Earlier in the night, Ukraine’s former Olympic champion Oleksandr Khyzhniak, boxing at light-heavyweight, defeated Frenchman Lenny Patrach with a second-round stoppage, Ziyad Almaayouf, a Saudi Arabian boxing out of Los Angeles at junior welterweight, outscored Tanzania’s Frank Mango 78-71, 77-72 and 77-72, while Liverpool junior bantamweight Mikie Tallon collapsed Orlando Pino with a first-round left hook to the body.
There were also victories for lightweight Mohammed Alakel, junior lightweight Sultan Almohammed, super middleweight Omar Hikal and junior welter Mohamed Moubarak over Lydon Chircop, Efren Besalduch, Brian Castellano and Bryan Zapata respectively.
