Marcus Morrison Blasts De Souza To Get WBC Silver

By Elliot Foster

Marcus Morrison claimed his first professional title with an impressive showing in his home city.

The 23-year-old is now 11-0 (8 KOs) and picked up the vacant WBC International Silver middleweight trinket after dazzling at the Manchester Arena, live on Sky Sports, as part of the supporting cast to Anthony Crolla’s WBA lightweight title defence against Ismael Barroso.

Morrison, nicknamed ‘Sweet MNM’, advanced his record against Brazil’s Jefferson Luiz De Souza.

He was originally set for an eight-round showdown on the bill at his natural weight of super-welterweight, but he added the six pounds to his physique earlier on fight week after learning of this fringe title opportunity against the 34-year-old, who is now 16-2-2 (10 KOs).

The hometown man began proceedings with a statement of intent, taking less than three minutes to score the first knockdown of the fight after unleashing a sensational two-punch right uppercut, left hand combination and forcing his overmatched opponent to the canvas.

And Morrison continued his dominance going into the second stanza as it was just 40 seconds before the referee was forced to call a halt to the fight after De Souza was stunned by a left hand and Morrison took full advantage, dropping his man with a right and putting a swift end to the contest.

Meanwhile, Callum Johnson moved to 14-0 (9 KOs) after securing a stoppage in his first outing for nearly 11 months.

The Boston light-heavyweight ended the challenge of Richard Horton, who is now 10-8 (1 KO) in just 78 seconds of the first round of their scheduled six-rounder, scoring three knockdowns.

And former Prizefighter champion Jono Carroll is now in double figures (10-0, 1 KO) in the pro game after decisioning Jordan Ellison.

Carroll, who is from Dublin and fights out of Packie Collins’ Celtic Warriors gym, got the decision by 60 points to 55 on the ref’s scorecard against the 20-year-old Sunderland-born puncher, who slipped to 5-4 (1 KO).