LAS VEGAS – Jessica McCaskill refused to allow months of challenging function go to waste.
The two-division and reigning lineal/WBC/WBA/IBF/WBO welterweight winner confused Calgary’s Kandi Wyatt, scoring a seventh-round stoppage to protect her crown. No knockdowns were scored but McCaskill was in whole command before the fight was mercifully halted at :19 of round seven in their DAZN-televised bout Saturday night at MGM Grand Backyard garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Obtaining put in the past eight months in the health and fitness center doing work on every single conceivable match plan no make a difference her following opponent, McCaskill and coach/supervisor teased the likelihood of extra boxing getting made available in her hottest overall performance. That assure lasted about as lengthy as it took for the defending winner and pound-for-pound entrant to dash out of her corner, quickly launching weighty correct hands. Wyatt took the shots perfectly, even scoring with clean up shots of her own in an action-packed opening round.
The similar sample held genuine in spherical two. McCaskill refused to take her foot off the gasoline towards an opponent in Wyatt who accepted the assignment on barely a person week’s discover. Wyatt stepped in soon after Argentina’s Victoria Bustos—a former titlist—was not able to safe a travel visa to make the trip to Las Vegas in time to go via with the battle.
McCaskill did her most effective to exploit that dynamic, testing the conditioning, coronary heart and chin of Wyatt whose head snapped back following using an overhand suitable and remaining hook in round three. McCaskill eased up at any time so a little, not throwing subsequent shots with vicious intentions but ample to bit by bit dress in down Wyatt.
The two-division champ immediately reverted to stalker method in spherical 4. McCaskill dug to the system and walked down Wyatt with left fingers upstairs. Wyatt supplied a one-two in return, neither shot landing and only leaving her open for McCaskill to counter with a flurry in the closing seconds of the spherical.
McCaskill opened round 5 with a series of legal rights to the physique. Wyatt managed to push the action to centre ring, but sorely lacked the equalizer to stall momentum. McCaskill drew a increase out of the group with a left-proper upstairs, repeating the sequence right before connecting with a pair of chopping appropriate arms.
The brutality continued in spherical six. McCaskill confirmed slick infighting skills, connecting with a ideal hand to the physique than dodging a still left and right by Wyatt drilling her challenger with a ideal uppercut. Wyatt finished the round battered, to the stage of the ringside medical professional talking about with referee Celestino Ruiz the probability of stopping the battle.
McCaskill made that selection and uncomplicated just one. Consecutive a single-twos from the champ was adequate for Ruiz to phase in and rescue Wyatt (10-4, 3KOs) from absorbing supplemental punishment.
The get marks the second productive protection of the undisputed championship for McCaskill, who enhances to 11-2 (3KOs). She has held the belt considering that dethroning previous pound-for-pound queen Cecilia Braekhus final August in Tulsa.. McCaskill repeated the feat this past March in Dallas, marking her sixth consecutive fight vs . a previous or latest champ dating back to her competitive but very clear defeat to lightweight winner Katie Taylor in December 2017.
McCaskill-Wyatt was a single of two title fights on Saturday’s DAZN telecast. Headlining the display, WBC lightweight champ Devin Haney (26-, 15KOs) faces WBC interim beltholder Joseph ‘JoJo’ Diaz (32-1-1, 15KOs) in a title consolidation clash.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox