Mea Motu stayed on course for a fight with Ellie Scotney when she stopped Shannon O’Connell at The Star in Sydney, Australia.
Scotney-Motu, for Scotney’s IBF and WBO super-bantamweight titles, was scheduled to take place on the undercard of Jack Catterall-Regis Prograis in Manchester on October 26, but an injury suffered by Scotney forced her withdrawal, and led to Motu-O’Connell being scheduled at 10 days’ notice.
At a catchweight of 125lbs, the 41-year-old O’Connell was inhibited from the first round when an accidental clash of heads left her bleeding heavily from her scalp. Motu immediately responded with aggression and to the extent O’Connell looked at risk of the stoppage, but she survived until the end of the opening two minutes.
Successive left hooks towards the end of the second round again threatened O’Connell’s participation, and she was hurt again in the third before horrific swelling appeared over her right eye and perhaps made an early conclusion inevitable.
It was ultimately in the fourth when it came, when O’Connell’s corner, again seeing their stricken fighter under attack, rightly chose to throw in the towel, confirming victory for the 34-year-old Motu after 66 seconds.
Charlie Kazzi had by then stopped Lui Magaiva in the seventh round of their lightweight contest.
The aggressive Kazzi, 19, first hurt Magaiva with a right hand in the third, and when he did so twice again in the fifth he started to hold his feet and pursue the stoppage.
Magaiva, 36, took further right hands throughout the sixth round, but perhaps can consider himself unfortunate to have been rescued by the referee Will Soulos after 98 seconds of the seventh. For all that their fight was becoming one-sided, the Papa New Guinean’s punch resistance wasn’t in doubt, contributing to him protesting at the outcome.
There was also a stoppage victory for Ahmed Reda, on the occasion of his third professional fight, in the second round of his fight at lightweight with Joe Kara.
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