Lucian Bute retains the IBF super-middleweight championship.

Tonight at the Bell centre in Montreal, around 14 000 boxing fans were present for the fight between Lucian Bute (22-0-0 18 KOs) who was defending his IBF super-middleweight title against William Joppy (39-5-1, 30 KOs), a veteran fighter at his 15th world championship bout in career.

The champion was well prepared for the fight and never gave a chance to the challenger. Lucian Bute clearly won every round with meticulous offensive work and a sound defense. William Joppy was only able to hit the champion with solid punches a couple of times. But most of the time, Lucian Bute was delivering the shots to the head at a regular pace.

As the fight went on, the champion continued to increase his pace while his 37-year-old opponent had to work very hard to register a single punch on target.

The crowd roared and jumped on it's feet at the end of the 9th round when the champion sent William Joppy to the canvas with a barrage of shots.

Lucian Bute ended the fight during the 10th round with another barrage of shots. The challenger went to the canvas twice during the round, the second time was enough for Joppy who signaled to referee Marlon B. Wright that he had enough. The referee stopped the bout giving the TKO victory to Lucian Bute.

Lucian Bute keeps his immaculate pro record with his 22nd victory in career while Joppy suffers a loss for the 5th time in his career. This is only the 2nd KO defeat in career for Joppy.

(Picture: Lucian Bute, Canadian Press.)