Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Tottenham - Lenin Castillo suffered a devastating second-round knockout at the hands of Callum Smith and was carried from the ring on a stretcher. 

Early in the second round, Smith landed a huge right, which seemed to land high on the Dominican boxer’s temple. He dropped like a stone, flat on his back, his legs making a worrying shuddering motion as he lay on the floor. 

Referee Bob Williams waved the fight off almost instantly – at 55 seconds of the round – as medical staff jumped into the ring. 

The blow clearly seemed to have knocked him out cold and a decision was quickly made to remove him from the ring on a stretcher. While no attempt was made to raise him to his feet, he did appear to move his hands twice as the stretcher was put beneath him and he was quickly taken away on a stretcher. 

It had been Smith’s light heavyweight debut, his first bout with new trainer Buddy McGirt and his first fight since losing on points to Canelo Alvarez.  

He had spoken of wanting to fight for a world title if he beat Castillo convincingly, but there were no celebrations from the Smith camp as they only showed concern for Castillo’s well-being. 

Promoter Eddie Hearn tweeted that Castillo was "responsive" on the way to hospital.

Ron Lewis is a senior writer for BoxingScene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 - covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.