INQUIRER Sports

LAS VEGAS – (UPDATE 2) Mexico's Humberto Soto defended his World Boxing Council super featherweight title here on Saturday with a ninth-round stoppage of Canadian challenger Benoit Gaudet.

Soto improved to 48-7 with two drawn with his 31st stoppage within the distance, keeping the crown after referee Jay Nady stopped the fight after two minutes and 25 seconds of the ninth round.

Gaudet fell to 20-2, his 11-fight win streak snapped in his first world title bout.

Soto, 28, flattened Gaudet just five weeks after making his first defense of the crown he won last December by decision over Francisco Lorenzo. Soto stopped Antonio Davis in the fourth round on March 28 at Tijuana.

Soto knocked down Gaudet with a stunning left hand 30 seconds into the fight but Gaudet rose and fought on, sustaining a cut above his left eye. The champion connected with another staggering left to the head early in the fifth.

Gaudet hit Soto in the groin with a solid left hand in the seventh, sending the champion to his knees. When he rose, Soto pressed the attack with a flurry and stunned the Canadian again at the end of the eighth round.

Soto send Gaudet to the canvas again midway into the ninth round and after another punishing left hand had the challenger leaning on the ropes. Gaudet fell over seconds later and Nady stopped the bout.