MANILA, Philippies — Filipino pug Johnriel Casimero made a dominant ring return as he scored a first round stoppage of American Saul Sanchez at the Yokohama Budokan on Sunday.
Making his first fight in a year, Casimero boxed like he never missed a beat as he rained down punches on Sanchez and the referee waved the bout in the last 20 seconds of the first round to prevent further damage on the latter.
Overweight in the weigh-in a day earlier, Casimero, a former three-division world champ, showed that it hardly matters as he immediately imposed his will to start the supposed super bantamweight 10-round bout.
The 35-year-old unleashed a series of punches capped by a right hook to knock Sanchez down 22 seconds into the round (2:38).
Sanchez recovered from that beatdown for a little while but Casimero floored him anew with a right left hook combination in the last 1:11.
Sensing blood, Casimero uncorked a barrage of punches on the groggy Sanchez until the referee decided to stop the fight in the final 20 seconds of the first frame.
Casimero raised his record to 34-4-1 win-loss-draw card with 23 knockouts.
The 27-year-old dropped to a 21-4 win-loss slate.
