Heavyweight contender Frank Sanchez stopped Brian Howard at 2:07 of Round 4 in a scheduled 10-round fight on the Luis Ortiz-Alexander Flores card Saturday in Los Angeles.
Sanchez, the former Cuban amateur, put his overmatched opponent down once in Round 3 and thrice more in Round 4.
Sanchez (16-0, 12 KOs) fought with more aggression than he had in previous fights and it paid off. He pushed the action and outworked Howard (15-4, 12 KOs) for two-plus rounds.
Then came the pain. A right uppercut followed by a left-right-left combination put Howard down in the final seconds of Round 3.
Sanchez put Howard down for the second time with a left hook early in Round 4, sent him to the canvas again with the same punch and then sent him reeling into the ropes with a flurry of punches, which prompted the ref to stop the fight.
The winner outlanded the loser 66-11 overall and 49-4 in power shots, according to CompuBox. That’s how one-sided the fight was.