Former super-middleweight champion Caleb “Sweet Hands” Plant KO`d two-time ex super-middleweight champion Anthony “The Dog” Dirrell with a power driving left hook out of the blue in round nine of their fight at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Referee Harvey Dock stopped the action at two minutes fifty-seven on the ninth. Anthony was flat on his back from that single crushing left for several minutes, but was able to regain his feet and walk back to the changing room.
Up to that point, it had been a relatively competitive fight, with Anthony landing some crisp right hands. But Caleb`s hand speed was notable. He often pawed with and stuck out his left before launching lightning combinations. Quite a lot of clinching and tumbles to the canvass. A warning sign of what was to come came in the fifth when a big left hook from Caleb drove Anthony back.
Mounting irritation, some backchat to the Referee by Anthony, and some play acting in the sixth with Caleb cartwheeling his right arm and Anthony sprinting in circles and then back to his corner. But when the end came it was swift, bordering on devastating…and no laughing matter.