Nina Hughes’ bid to regain the WBA bantamweight title ended in defeat as Cherneka Johnson won their rematch by stoppage.
Hughes lost her title in controversial fashion in Perth last May, when a scorecards mix-up meant the Briton was announced the winner before the verdict was corrected.
This time round, there was no doubt as Johnson claimed a convincing victory in Sydney, with Hughes’ corner throwing the towel in 46 seconds into the seventh round.
The 30-year-old Australian dominated a scrappy contest to retain her title and improve her professional record to 17-2.
Hughes suffered a cut to her nose after a clash of heads in the third round and was deducted a point for holding early in the fifth round.
The 42-year-old has now lost two of her eight fights and hugged Johnson immediately after Saturday’s bout was stopped.
“[Johnson] was just too strong, too young, too fresh,” said promoter Eddie Hearn.
“She was a real handful. It was scrappy at times but she just outmuscled [Hughes] and outworked her.
“Nina’s had a great run. She started her career late really – she’s in her early 40s now, she’s been a world champion and had two big fights in Australia. It could be the end of the road.”
Australia’s Skye Nicolson then suffered an upset as she lost her WBC featherweight title to American challenger Tiara Brown.
Both came in with an unbeaten professional record and Brown, 36, claimed a split-decision win over 29-year-old Nicolson.
One judge scored the fight 96-94 in favour of Nicolson, but the other two had it 96-94 and 97-93 for Brown, who improved her record to 19-0 while Nicolson is now 12-1.
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