Undefeated heavyweight prospects Fabio Wardley 10-0 (9) and Alen Babic 6-0 (6) both impressed in separate bouts on the undercard of Conor Benn vs Sebastian Formella at The SSE Arena in Wembley, London on Saturday night.
The 25-year-old Wardley from Ipswich delivered a brutal second-round knockout of Richard Lartey 14-4 (11) that left the experienced campaigner sitting on the canvas for some minutes as he was administered oxygen by the ringside physician.
Wardley landed a lead left hook around Lartey’s guard followed by a looping right that dropped that Ghanaian heavily to the canvas. Referee Victor Loughlin waved off the fight at the 1:22 mark of the second frame of their 10-round fight.
“That finish in particular answered a few questions,” Wardley said. “I hope Lartey is okay and healthy, it is not nice to see any fighter in that kind of shape afterwards, but that knockout answer if I had single punch power and I can really hang with those big boys. I can.
“I know a lot of my stoppages in the past have been combinations, but I proved there that once I sit down and put a big shot in I can get you out of there all the same.
Wardley, who had no amateur career, said is happy with the way he is being moved in the pro ranks.
“I’m moving at a good pace,” he continued. “Ten fights in, decent opposition. Richard Lartey was a good test on paper in terms of his record and I passed that pretty easily.
“But I don’t want to get too carried away with myself. I still need to build, there are still things I need to learn.
“I haven’t got into the second half of a fight, I haven’t got into a right war. There are still a few boxes to tick off before we really step up.”
Lartey was coming off a 10-round points loss to Nathan Gorman last month.
Earlier in the night Alen ‘The Savage’ Babic overwhelmed Tom Little 10-9 (3) to stop him at 2:38 of the third round in their scheduled eight round bout.
The 30-year-old Croatian had Little down twice in the third before referee Robert Williams waved off the contest.
“He was in very good shape, he took a lot of punches, I think I broke both my knuckles on his head,” Babic said.
“This is what I do, I can do it ten times better than this. But I can’t test myself against Tom Little. He said he is going to go to war – everybody says that; nobody does that. I want a challenge.
“I was in no way shape or form nervous. It was like a walk in the park. I wanted it in the first round. I shook him up two times, but Tom was so hard.
“He is two-stone heavier than me, but it has nothing to do with boxing. He does CrossFit, I do boxing. If I do benches, I will be 170 kilos. I don’t need it, I am perfect.”
At super middleweight Jez Smith 12-2-1 (5) had too much experience for Ben Ridings 3-1, scoring a six-round shutout.
Opening the card Liam Davies 8-0 (3) claimed the vacant English bantamweight belt with a sixth-round stoppage victory over game but outclassed Sean Cairns 7-3 (1) in their 10-round bout.
