Rochester, New York - In the ShoBox co-main event, promising Louisiana lightweight “Rock Hard Mighty” Mason Menard scored a brutal knockout at 2:26 of the ninth-round over battled-tested Bahodir Mamadjonov, winning the WBO NABO Lightweight belt.  

Both Menard and Mamadjonov were facing their most dangerous foe to date. Mamadjonov (18-3, 11 KOs), showed great ring generalship successfully keeping Menard's output down for the first six rounds, but Menard (32-1, 24 KOs) dramatically turned the fight around with body shots that produced two knockdowns in the seventh. A slow eighth-round followed but the ninth brought another series of power shots leading to the third and final knockdown, prompting referee Steve Smoger to intervene and halt the contest.

At the time of the stoppage Menard, who out-landed Mamadjonov 10-0 in the bout's final 26 seconds, was ahead by two points on two scorecards and four points on the third.

“I feel great, but it was a B-level performance from me,” said Menard who is coming from a knockout-of-the-year candidate, “I could have done better. My opponent was an awkward fighter and we got him with two weeks’ notice.

“I knew if I kept putting the pressure, slowly he would fade and I would take him out in the later rounds and that’s exactly how it happened. He was hurting to the body. I knew after the first couple rounds he was breathing really heavy, so the game plan was to start touching him to the body. It was affecting him greatly.

“I’m definitely excited to get my second SHOWTIME knockout and I got some rounds under my belt. It’s been years since I went that many rounds, so it was good to know I can go that long and still finish strong.”

“I don’t really know what went wrong,” said Mamadjonov, who is known for his high boxing IQ. “It was short notice and I think I lost too much weight.

“I didn’t feel his punches, but he caught me with some good body shots. I was fighting evenly with him until the weight loss caught up to me and I got tired.

“I feel ok now. I’m good. I am disappointed but I’m fine. I’ll be back.”