Artur Beterbiev picked up where he left off.
The light heavyweight titleholder, who hadn’t fought in 17 months, methodically broke down and then stopped overmatched Adam Deines at 1:34 of Round 10 at Khodynka Ice Palace, Moscow.
Beterbiev has now knocked out each of his 16 opponents.
The Russian didn’t look spectacular but the result was similar to his previous outings, a one-sided fight that ended with his opponent unable to survive to the final bell.
Beterbiev was Beterbiev, stalking Deines (19-2-1, 10) from the opening bell and landing hard, accurate shots to the head and body.
Dienes went down with seconds left in the opening round from a right hand that grazed the top of his head. He recovered well, though. And he had some success in the fight, beating Beterbiev to the punch at times and landing power shots here and there.
However, the nonstop pressure from Beterbiev gradually wore down the challenger. And when a short left put him down in Round 10, his corner decided he had taken enough punishment and stopped the fight.
Beterbiev had unified the IBF and WBC titles with a sensational 10th-round knockout of Oleksandr Gvozdyk in October 2019.
He could try for belt No. 3 soon. He’s expected to face the winner of the April 10 Joe Smith Jr.-Maxim Vlasov fight for the vacant WBO title. Dmitry Bivol is the WBA champion.