Olympic gold medal-winner Galal Yafai made a pretty impressive professional debut as he stopped the gallant Carlos Vado Bautista in the fifth round of a flyweight ten-rounder made for the WBC international belt.
Yafai – who won flyweight gold for Great Britain in Tokyo last summer – was happy to trade and take the occasional shot, but he did a thorough job in the Mexican, breaking him down before going for the finish.
Yafai started on the front foot, greeting the Mexican with a looping left that landed clean. From then on, he kept pressure on Bautista, moving him backward and landing a steady stream of hooks.
In the second round, Yafai switched the attack to the body and began breaking Bautista down. The Mexican tried to make a fight of it and did land some shots, but Yafai walked through them to land better shots as he rocked Bautista on the ropes.
There was no quit in Bautista, though, as he came out punching at Yafai in the third and one right made enough impact to stop Yafai in his tracks. Butista was started to look banged up, though, and Yafai was drilling him back with head shots.
The fourth round saw Bautista soak up almost non-stop punches, although he gamely tried to throw back. He came out for a go in the fifth, though, but Yafai was hitting him almost at will at Bautista looked in terrible pain from the bombardment.
Eventually a four-punch combination, ended with a straight right and a left, sent Bautista to the floor and, while he got back to his feet, the Mexican’s corner waved the towel to indicate to referee Mark Lyson to stop it.
Yafai will be moved quickly, although promoter Eddie Hearn is likely to give him 18 months to move up into world class rather than forcing things too much.
Ron Lewis is a senior writer for BoxingScene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 – covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.