This past Saturday night, WBA cruiserweight world champion Yunier Dorticos (22-0, 21 KOs) retained his title and stamped his place in the World Boxing Super Series Cruiserweight Semi-finals with a sensational second round knockout of Dmitry Kudryashov (21-2, 21 KOs) in their quarter-final bout from the Alamodome in San Antonio.

The unbeaten champion Dorticos landed a thunderous overhand right after Kudryashov threw a glancing jab during a second round exchange and sent the Russian to the canvas. Kudryashov attempted to get to his feet, but referee Rafael Ramos had seen enough and ended the bout at 2:10 into the second round.

Before Kudryashov was knocked out, he was rocked several times while trying to stand toe to toe with Dorticos to trade hard shots.

Dorticos is now lined up to face the winner of the WBSS quarter-final bout between IBF Champion Murat Gassiev and former champion Krzysztof Wlodarczyk, which takes place on October 21 in New Jersey.

Gassiev, who is trained by veteran coach Abel Sanchez, was a very interested observer of the contest. He felt Kudryashov utilized the wrong tactics in the fight and it cost him big time.

"Dorticos did his homework better. I believe that he studied the unsuccessful fight that Kudryashov had with Olanrewaju Durodola and then he repeated his tactics with pressure and throwing a lot of punches. And Dmitry needed to train more to avoid the multi-shot combinations and not take everything on himself. Dmitry took some punches in those rounds, several times, before the final blow landed which ended the fight, just when Dorticos was throwing a lot of punches," Gassiev stated.

"I hope that everything is in order with Dmitry, and I'm sure that he will show himself yet again in the future ... This is boxing and this is a heavy weight class, so nothing terrible happened. We must get up and move on."