An easy night’s work for WBA super-middleweight champion Callum Smith.
In his first defense of his WBA super-middleweight title, Liverpool’s Callum Smith (26-0, 19 KOs) made the most of his Madison Square Garden debut, dropping and stopping Cameroon’s Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam (37-4, 21 KOs) in the co-main event of Anthony Joshua vs. Andy Ruiz Jr.
To completely stomp out the BS as early as possible, this was a squash match. N’Dam is a career middleweight and fringe contender at that class, and he’s best known for getting knocked down many times over without actually getting stopped. Going up to 168 lbs to face a giant super-middleweight in Smith, this actually proved to be problematic for Hassan. He was knocked down once apiece from rounds 1-3, and the last one saw his head crash against the canvas after a hard right hand. Referee Charlie Fitch gave a count (he shouldn’t have) and while N’Dam bravely got to his feet as usual, this time he was saved from himself.
Watch the finish below.
With @danieljacobstko sitting ringside, @callumsmith23 with a THUNDEROUS title defense ??#SmithNDam #JoshuaRuiz pic.twitter.com/dv8hwvdUEz
— DAZN USA (@DAZN_USA) June 2, 2019
Name a better fighter at 168 — we’ll wait …#SmithNDam #JoshuaRuiz pic.twitter.com/c5sX2fuNUR
— DAZN USA (@DAZN_USA) June 2, 2019
N’Dam has been stopped before by his corner (vs. Ryota Murata), but that’s his first proper knockout defeat. It was really destined to happen from the opening bell. Now that Smith has gotten his 2019 off and running, hopefully there are better fights out there for him. He called out Canelo Alvarez for a possible showdown, and there’s the chance that Daniel Jacobs could move up to 168 and face him too.
Read: Anthony Joshua vs. Andy Ruiz Jr live results, round by round updates