Inoue smashes Payano, Relikh beats Troyanovsky

Naoya Inoue and Kiryl Relikh advanced to the next round of the World Boxing Super Series tournaments today in Yokohama, with Inoue once again living up to his reputation in the main event.

Inoue retained his WBA “world” bantamweight title and improved to 17-0 (15 KO) with a first round knockout of Juan Carlos Payano, dropping Payano with a beautiful and crushing right hand that put a stop to the fight just 70 seconds after the opening bell.

It was the first stoppage loss in the career of Payano (20-2, 9 KO), a good fighter and former titleholder at 118 pounds.

Inoue now moves on to face the winner of the October 20 fight between IBF champion Emmanuel Rodriguez and Jason Moloney.

In 140-pound action, Kiryl Relikh (23-2, 19 KO) retained his WBA “world” title by decision, beating Eduard Troyanovsky (27-2, 24 KO) over 12 rounds on scores of 115-113 across the board in a solid fight where the right man was declared the winner.

Relikh will next face the winner of the October 27 bout between Regis Prograis and Terry Flanagan.

In non-tournament action, Ken Shiro (14-0, 8 KO) retained his WBC junior flyweight title with a stoppage win over Milan Melindo (37-4, 13 KO), stopping the veteran challenger on cuts in the seventh round.