Mary Spencer knew it would be a race to the top after turning pro just last summer and just four months shy of her 37th birthday.

She didn’t waste any time in her most recent performance.

On a night where every preceding bout went to the scorecards, Spencer provided the judges with some relief after a first-round knockout of Mexico’s Cynthia Lozano. Spencer floored Lozano roughly 45 seconds into the bout, with an ensuing volley prompting a stoppage at 1:03 of round one Friday evening on ESPN+ from Montreal Casino in Montreal, Canada.

Spencer turned pro to considerable fanfare last August, known for her all-action style though amidst a hard-luck amateur career that saw several starts and stops. Just a mere glimpse of her brilliance was offered, as Lozano (9-2, 7KOs)—despite having challenged for a title in her last start—was in well over her head for the second straight time in Canada. The 36-year-old from Monterrey, Mexico was stopped in the seventh-round of her vacant IBF junior middleweight title fight with Marie Eve Dicarie last December at Bell Center in Montreal.

Against Spencer, Lozano wasn’t given a chance to establish her offense. Spencer opened the fight doubling up on her jab before immediately turning to her left hook. Lozano was battered around the ring before a left hook sent her crashing to the canvas. She barely beat the count, but Spencer refused to let her off the hook—literally, as Lozano was defenseless upon being rescued by referee Albert Padulo Jr.

Spencer advances to 7-0 (5KOs), earning a first-round knockout for the third time in her past four fights. She has now scored five wins in 2022, and now plans to challenge for a junior middleweight title within her next couple of fights.

Headlining the show, unbeaten super middleweight Christian Mbilli—a quarterfinalist for France in the 2016 Rio Olympics—faces Toledo-based divisional trialhorse DeAndre Ware (15-3-2, 9KOs) in a scheduled ten-round regional title fight.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for krikya360.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox