Michal Cieslak claimed the European cruiserweight title by dropping and stopping Dylan Bregeon in four rounds in his native Poland. The 34-year-old from Radom has lost in two previous world title challenges but claimed the EBU strap here with an efficient beatdown of Bregeon.
Cieslak is still rebuilding after being outpointed by WBO king Lawrence Okolie in February last year and has stopped both Enrico Koelling and Krzysztof Twardowski since.
And he can now add Frenchman Bregeon to that list after forcing referee Fabian Guggenheim to wave off the contest with just one second left of the fourth.
Cieslak, who was aggressive from the first minute, had already downed Bregeon once with a flurry of hooks with the visitor pinned in a corner.
Another brutal barrage had precluded Bregeon from firing anything back when he went down again. And, despite being so close to the bell to end the round, Guggenheim decided enough was enough.
Bregeon had already been beaten by Fabio Turchi and Chris Billam-Smith in previous attempts to win the European title but this was the first time the 29-year-old had ever been stopped.
Earlier, British heavyweight prospect Jeamie TKV maintained the undefeated start to his professional career by stopping Michal Boloz inside five minutes.
In what was his second outing of the year, the 260lb 29-year-old moved to 5-0 (3) and had it all his own way against Boloz, who arrived on a run of three consecutive inside-distance wins.
But TKV, full James Jeamie Tshikeva, put a stop to that run after 1:57 of the second round at the G2A Arena Jasionka 953.
There was also a win for his fellow Brit Steed Woodall. The Birmingham light-heavyweight, boxing in his first eight-round fight for six years, narrowly outpointed Boris Crighton.
Judges Marcin Godon, Robert Gortat and Arek Malek all made the former Ronnie Shields-trained man a 77-75 winner over Glasgow-based Crighton.
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