NRL Power Rankings: Round 8 - Rabbits hit rock bottom, Warriors show signs of complacency, Dragons' bubble bursts
The season is heading into its middle third and there is a clear separation between seven teams who all look playoff bound and the…
Former NRL player Cory Paterson has continued his unbeaten start to his heavyweight boxing career with a crushing win over Michael Lua Tama.
The 27-year-old walked away from his league career at the end of the NRL season to concentrate on boxing and looked right at home on the undercard of the Anthony Mundine-Sergey Rabchenko main fight at Melbourne’s Hisense Arena.
Paterson played in 2014 with Wests Tigers but also played for UK club Hull KR, North Queensland and 77 games for Newcastle where he started his NRL career.
He took an early blow from Sydney’s Lua Tama but then landed two big right hands with the last knocking out his opponent’s mouth guard and forcing the referee to stop the fight after just 1 minute 53 secs.
The TKO gave him a record of two wins from two fights.
Paterson said he would have liked the fight to go the full four rounds but would take a win where he could.
“I would have been happy to box the four rounds but you can’t really get better than a first round knockout,” he said.
The former backrower said that entering the ring in front of the full-house had given him a huge buzz.
“It’s quite intimidating because the fans are so close and it’s only you and another guy in the ring but in terms of rushes it’s up there with any game of footy I’ve played.”
Earlier, Lucas Browne also won by TKO in his heavyweight title fight with American Chauncy Welliver.
Browne claimed the WBC Eurasia Pacific Boxing Council title and the WBA Intercontinental heavyweight crown.
The referee stopped their fight at the end of the fifth round, extending his unbeaten record to 22.
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