BBC Sport
Britain's David Haye made a convincing first title defence as he stopped American John Ruiz in the ninth round to retain the WBA heavyweight crown.
The Londoner floored Ruiz with a right hand after 25 seconds and the American took a second count in the opening round at Manchester's MEN Arena.
Ruiz proved his durability by fighting on but was put down twice more in a torrid sixth round.
And Haye finished the job in the ninth when Ruiz's corner threw in the towel.
It was Haye's first defence since beating Nikolay Valuev for the title in November and the victory came in only his fourth fight in the heavyweight division, taking his professional record to 25-1.
Ruiz, 38, had been hoping to join Muhammad Ali, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis and Vitali Klitschko as a three-time world heavyweight champion.
He had been stopped just once before in 18 years and 54 fights.
Earlier in the evening, Briton George Groves stopped Ghana's Charles Adamu in the sixth round to win the Commonwealth super-middleweight title.
Colin Lynes failed to make it a successful British double after being counted out in the eighth round of his Commonwealth light-welterweight title challenge against Ajose Olusegan of Nigeria.
Source: news.bbc.co.uk
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