JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - FEBRUARY 16, Kevin Lerena during the Cruiserweight bout between Kevin Lerena (silver and red trunks) and Javier Corrales (red trunks) at Emperor's Palace on February 16, 2013 in Johannesburg, South Africa.Photo by Lee Warren / Gallo Images
The unbeaten South African needed just shy of two minutes to stop his Georgian opponent, who should be in better shape considering he fights often, with the southpaw landing a solid straight left to send his foe crashing to the canvas for a full count.
The only other bout of the evening that ended early was the international junior-lightweight clash between Malcolm Klassen and Justin Savi, who made the trip from Benin for the bout on the “Palace Storm” bill.
It was Klassen’s first fight in over a year but the former IBF world champion showed no signs of rung rust. In fact there were shades of the Klassen of old as he displayed some of the ruthless, killer instinct that saw him achieve success in a topsy-turvy career to eventually force a stoppage.
With “The Stone” dominating proceedings, the action was halted at 1:46 into the fourth round with Savi being used as little more than a walking punch bag by Klassen.
The junior-lightweight clash between Ashley Dlamini and Sydney Maluleke become farcical at times with the latter clowning around for most of the eight round contest.
The antics were used in an effort to disrupt Dlamini but the fighter dubbed “Stimela” got the job done with a unanimous decision in his favour. By the end of the contest the judges scored it 79-73, 77-75 and 78-74 in his favour to hand him victory.
There was also a points win for Page Tshesane as he got the better of Tebogo Malose in their middleweight encounter over six rounds.
The opening bouts both ended in draws as debutants Duran Ray and Onke Duku fought to a stalemate while the judges were unable to split Marcus Lebogo and Luyando Jako.