By Srithar Visuasam: Tasmanian Steve Maxwell (7-3, 5 KOs) stunned a packed Malvern Town Hall, Melbourne, Australia last night in knocking out champion and local favourite Heath Ellis (12-2-1, 6 KOs) in the fourth round of their scheduled 12 round encounter for the IBF Pan Pacific and WBC Asian Boxing Council welterweight titles.
The first three rounds all seemed to be going swimmingly for Ellis, who controlled the tempo well with controlled aggression. However, early into the fourth round Maxwell landed a left hook onto the nose of the Victorian which started a continual assault until a straight right dropped Ellis hard to the canvas with the referee immediately waving off the fight.. Ellis was then attended to by medical staff and was given oxygen treatment before regaining his feet a few minutes later.
Maxwell, the underdog coming into the fight, had won his past three fights by knockout, including a technical knockout over former Australian welterweight champion Matthew Paulley.
In other fights on the night, Blake Caparello (4-0, 1 KO) continued his unbeaten start to his career in defeating Joel Casey (9-7-3, 5 KOs) in a hard fought bout over eight rounds. In a strong test of resolve, Caparello kept the intensity the full distance of the fight with his left hook a feature. The scorecards read 77-75, 77-75, 79-76 in his favour defending his Victoria State light heavyweight title.
Tim Hunt (6-2, 3 KOs) had all the answers over Jean Claude (1-11-1) winning a five round technical decision. Jean Claude suffered a cut above his left eye in round four which got progressively worse, before the referee called off the bout at the end of round five.
Terry Tzouramanis (2-0, 1 KO) defeated Robert Monitto (2-5, 1 KO) over four tough rounds winning by split decision. The scorecards read 39-37 to Monitto and 39-37 and 40-36 to Tzouramanis.
Debutant Brett Williams (1-0) out pointed Clint Hore (0-2) in their four round bout with the scorecards reading 40-36, 40-36 and 39-37 in Williams favour.
Highlights will be shown on next week’s KO Boxing program screened at 10pm on Channel 31 in Victoria, Australia hosted by Peter Maniatis.