By Alexey Sukachev
England - European welterweight champion Matthew Hatton (41-4-2, 16 KOs) got the second defense of his title with an impressive third-round knockout of little-known but hugely overmatched Swiss opponent Roberto Belge (25-1-1, 4 KOs).
It was Hatton all the way. He reconnoitred the situation by noticing Belge's lack of punching power, found out some soft spots for his combinations in the second and got the job done with a cracking left hook to the body midst into the third. Time was 1:32, when referee Robin Dolpierre reached the count of "ten". Another convincing performance for an improved version of Ricky Hatton's younger brother, who was ranked #6 by the WBA and #14 by the WBC coming into this fight.
Meanwhile, Junior Witter, who was ringside at Reebok Stadium in Bolton, England, while congratulating Matthew Hatton through TV broadcast for a good fight also noted, saidhe is ready to get the rid off the European champion as soon as they share the same ring.
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In another prompt demolition, rising British middleweight Martin Murray (21-0, 8 KOs) gave his Brazilian opponent Carlos Nascimento (25-3, 21 KOs) a steady diet of various but constantly hard leather and then stopped him on his feet at 1:40 of the round.
Murray was bigger, much faster and much more refined than his plodding opponent. The Brit wisely mixed sharp attacks and a tight guard to distract his smaller plodding opponent. In the third Murray clocked his opponent with a big left hook and then unleashed a furious series to corner Nascimento and to force referee Terry O'Connor to step in and halt the action with Nascimento's head being dangerously moving backwards and forwards.
Murray is a new WBA International middleweight champion. Former WBO light middleweight title challenger Nascimento suffered his third stoppage loss in career.
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Super bantamweight kayo terror Scott Quigg (21-0, 14 KOs) scored a unanimous decision over iron-chinned Daniel Kodjo Sassou (29-15-4, 7KO). Scores were 119-108 (twice) and 119-109.
Quigg dominated an entire fight and even scored a flash knockdown with a blistering left-right combo
in the seventh round but failed to stop his foe. The Brit retained his WBA Intercontinental title in this one and showed a good technique.
It's worth noting, that after being just 2-11-2 in his first 16 fights (with one no-contest), Sassou is 29-4-2 after that with several sound wins. He hasn't been stopped from December 2002.