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Super middleweight Jose Uzcategui put on perhaps a career best performance tonight on Showtime, beating the hell out of Andre Dirrell over 8 rounds to force an early 9th round stoppage — officially ending at 2 seconds into Round 9.
Uzcategui showed Dirrell no respect in this fight, coming right after him from the opening bell and unloaded non-stop power punches, particularly a straight right hand that couldn’t miss Dirrell’s face. And the more pressure Uzcategui put on Dirrell, the more defensive Dirrell became, until he ultimately was just overwhelmed by the amount of punishment he was absorbing.
At the end of the 8th round Dirrell’s trainer Virgil Hunter yell at his fighter that he was only going to give him one more round before he threw in the towel, but by that point Dirrell’s body language showed that he didn’t really want to fight any longer. Then, right as the 9th round bell rang, Dirrell’s other cornerman made the obvious call, not allowing the fight to continue any longer.
With the win Uzcategui becomes the interim IBF champion and called out WBC beltholder David Benavidez Jr.