An American heavyweight to be enthused by: Da’Mazion Vanhouter

LAS VEGAS – Perhaps the next great heavyweight is an American.

Less than a month after young England heavyweight Moses Itauma was knocked out in his first title shot, Da’Mazion Vanhouter made an explosive appearance with a second-consecutive first-round knockout.

Florida’s Vanhouter, 13-0 (10 KOs), knocked out 246lbs Raphael Akpejiori 1 minute, 58 seconds into the first on a vicious right hand to the head while the reeling victim was leaning toward the ropes Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena.

“I signed up to become the best,”  Vanhouter said in the ring afterward.

Vanhouter, coming off a 66-second knockout on May 10, previously dropped Akpejiori earlier in the round on a left-right combination. He then delivered more punishment to leave Akpejiori on extremely wobbly legs.

I could’ve hit him with any punch I wanted to,” Vanhouter said.

The impressive triumph by the Zuffa Boxing product leaves him well positioned for a rapid ascent.

“I’m trying to get better and on to what’s next,” Vanhouter said.

“Yes, I want to go rounds.”

Given what he’s done lately, that may be problematic.

Las Vegas lightweight Andres Cortes remained unbeaten at 26-0 by twice knocking down former featherweight champion Mark Magsayo and gaining a unanimous-decision victory by three 97-93 scores.

Winning a pay-per-view main-card bout “is everything I dreamed of,” Cortes said. “My time’s coming.”

Cortes was credited with a knockdown of Magsayo, 29-3, in the third by delivering a left to the body as Magsayo was crouching down and touched his knee on the canvas.

Magsayo similarly ducked away from a power right in the fourth and again touched his right knee on the mat as the referee again ruled it a knockdown.

Cortes said the keys to victory were “box, pick him apart, [try] to walk him down.”

Defeating one ex-champion set Cortes’ attention on another, former WBA 140lbs champion Jose “Rayo” Valenzuela.

“Let’s get it on,” Cortes said.

Fighting in a contracted 152lbs bout, Vlad Panin scored a fourth-round TKO of Dakota Linger at the 1:22 mark, relying on body punches to finish the West Virginia fighter who fell to 17-8-3.

“He was eating the head shots, so I went to the body,” the 30-year-old Panin, 25-2 (17 KOs), said afterward.

Panin referred to the short-notice fight as a “cakewalk” and said Zuffa Boxing can either send him a similar opponent, or move him toward a meeting versus former 140lbs champion Richardson Hitchins of Zuffa or WBO welterweight champion Devin Haney.

Zuffa’s super-middleweight prospect Abel Gonzalez, 9-0 (6 KOs), weathered a first-round knockdown at the hands of Raul Salomon, 16-5-1, and recovered to win by three 77-74 scorecards.

Gonzalez landed heavily on Salomon as the fight progressed, but couldn’t finish the fighter who’s never been stopped and only knocked down twice.

Lightweight Oswaldo Molina, 10-0, of Mexico closed the preliminary portion of the show by defeating Pablo Rubio 15-1 by unanimous decision, 60-54, 59-55, 59-55.

Molina, 19, was moved to tears by the victory, explaining, “It’s my first time fighting in a major arena. … This is why we train for this.”