400 rich people packed a tiny room at a casino today in Monte Carlo to watch Dmitry Bivol knock out challenger Trent Broadhurst at the end of the first round, retaining his WBA light heavyweight title.

Bivol (12-0, 10 KO) had already been credited with one knockdown by referee Howard Foster, but that was a bad call, as it came on a shoulder shove. But the second knockdown was a no doubter.

At the very end of the opening round, Bivol landed a vicious straight right hand that sent Broadhurst (20-2, 12 KO) to the canvas, where he landed flat on his back, bloodied immediately. Foster immediately stopped the fight, with the official time of the stoppage 3:00 of round one.

Bivol, 26, didn’t prove anything new with this win, necessarily, as the 29-year-old Broadhurst is a fringe contender at best, and that’s probably stretching it a fairly good deal. It has to be said, though, that Bivol did what he was supposed to do here. He didn’t labor through the fight or even through a few rounds, he found an opening, landed his shot, and ended the fight.

With the victory, the future remains very bright for the Russian slugger, one of the fighters HBO is hoping to build its next generation of boxing around, if things continue to go well.

Undercard

The rematch between WBA bantamweight titleholder Jamie McDonnell and Liborio Solis ended in an unsatisfying no-decision due to an accidental clash of heads in the third round. McDonnell (29-2-1, 13 KO) was badly cut over the left eye, and the fight was stopped pretty much immediately. Solis remains 25-5-1 (11 KO).

Featherweight contender Scott Quigg improved to 34-1-2 (25 KO) with a sixth round TKO victory over Oleg Yefimovych (29-3-1, 16 KO).

Agit Kabayel remained undefeated and retained the European heavyweight title with a mild upset decision win against Dereck Chisora. Kabayel (17-0, 12 KO) won a majority decision on scores of 115-113, 115-114, and 114-114. Chisora falls to 27-8 (19 KO).