Terry Flanagan beats Jose Zepeda to claim WBO lightweight title
Last Updated: 12/07/15 12:01am
Terry Flanagan secured the vacant WBO lightweight title after Jose Zepeda succumbed to a shoulder injury in Manchester.
The 26-year-old Mancunian, who sneaked into the MEN Arena without a ticket for Ricky Hatton's victory over Kostya Tszyu 10 years ago, brought the belt back to his home city with an early win on a technical knockout at the Manchester Dome on Saturday night.
Flanagan won the British lightweight title with a win against Martin Gethin a year ago and on Saturday night triumphed during the second round after his American opponent sustained what looked like a bad dislocation to his shoulder and was unable to continue.
Despite Flanagan having home-town advantage, the first round was evenly contested before the Briton caught his opponent with a left hook to the body in the second.
Moments later Zepeda, who arrived from California having never made the lightweight limit, looked in serious trouble following a clash of arms and was in agony over a problem with his shoulder.
The bout was subsequently called off with Flanagan handed the win on a TKO.
Flanagan admitted he was confident he would go on to win the fight before Zepeda got injured and said he would be up for a rematch to prove his theory.
"He hit me but I didn't feel anything," Flanagan is quoted as saying on www.boxingscene.com.
"I must be numb in the head. I want the rematch. I want to prove I'm the better boxer. I want to fight and beat him again without the shoulder injury."
