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Mateo Tapia has gone and finished the fighter dubbed Russia’s Jake Paul – while also continuing his own push for a middleweight title shot — with a brutal fifth round KO at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion.
Ranked among Australia’s most exciting fighters, 26-year-old Tapia has added to his already impressive highlight reel with a devastating right hand finish of Sergei Vorobev.
Tszyu vs Spencer | SUN 6 APRIL 11AM AEDT | Tim Tszyu makes his highly anticipated return to the ring as he looks to push himself back into world title contention against Joey Spencer. | Order Now with Main Event on Kayo Sports.
While Vorobev, who is now based out of Sydney, and initially made headlines calling out the Tszyu boys to his large Instagram following, appeared to question the stoppage afterwards — and even busted out some protest push ups centre ring — there appeared little doubting the monster shot.
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“As a fighter, you know when the eyes go,” Tapia agreed afterwards.
So as for what’s next?
“I don’t want to call anyone out,” he shrugged. “It’s cringey.
“But the middleweights know who I am.”
For Tapia, the performance continued to build his standing among Australian sports fans and also represented a comeback of sorts for the Northern Beaches native — who suffered a contentious majority draw against Endry Saavedra late last year.
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Despite being dropped three times in that US fight, Tapia fought back bravely to eventually earn a draw in the slobberknocker that came on the same card where Tim Tszyu lost his world title attempt against Bakhram Murtazaliev.
Certainly Vorobev also lost no fans in Wednesday night’s fight.
While he may have entered the bout as a betting underdog, the Russian started as if shot out of cannon, boxing strongly through the opening three rounds and continually putting pressure on Tapia, who it has to be said also responded with plenty of his own.
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Then by the fourth, Tapia started landing heavily and, at one point, pinned his now Sydney-based rival against the ring ropes while landing heavy to the body.
But still, it was nothing like what came in the fifth, when the Narrabeen boy, who now lives and trains out of Florida, landed a booming right hand in the middle of the ring, with Shawn Porter describing it in commentary as the “best knockout of the year”.