Artur Beterbiev claimed victory in his native Russia on Saturday, stopping Germany's Adam Deines in round 10 of a scheduled 12 to retain his WBC and IBF light-heavyweight titles.
Beterbiev dropped Deines in the very first round but had to withstand some decent counter-punching after that before his aggressive forward approach began to break his opponent down, and his second knockdown of the fight ultimately convinced the official to wave it off as the challenger did not look fit to continue as he returned to his feet.
The victory, which moves the champ to 16-0 with an impressive 100% knockout ratio, was Beterbiev's first fight since October 2019 when he stopped Ukrainian Oleksandr Gvozdyk in the same round as Deines to unify the two editions of the 175lbs title.
Beterbiev has been linked with an eventual showdown with global superstar Canelo Alvarez, whose sights are currently set on unifying the super-middleweight division before considering a move back up to light-heavy.