SA's Mchunu stopped in 9th round

Cape Town - Oleksandr Usyk from the Ukraine retained his WBO junior heavyweight belt when he stopped South Africa’s Thabiso Mchunu in the ninth round at the Forum in Inglewood, California on Saturday night.

Referee Lou Moret waved the fight off at 1:53 of the ninth round after Mchunu had been down for the third time.

Usyk, the 2012 Olympic heavyweight gold medallist, started slowly against the defensive style and awkward spoiling tactics of Mchunu.

However, Mchunu did score with counter left hands in this all southpaw battle, but Usyk began to land the more accurate punches as the bout progressed.

Mchunu was put down with a left uppercut in the sixth round. He was sent down again in round nine with a flurry of punches before Usyk scored the final knockdown later in the round with a left hook.

Usyk improves his record to 11-0 and Mchunu’s record drops to 17-3.