Lamont Roach Jr put on a masterful performance last night in Washington DC, stopping Fergal McCrory in round 8 to keep his WBA Super Featherweight Title.

This was Roach’s first fight since winning the title against Hector Luis Garcia in November last year.

In front of his home crowd, Roach (25-1-1) put on a showcase of back foot boxing, and had the perfect opponent to do so against in McCrory.

From the opening bell McCrory (16-1) was on the front foot and didn’t stop coming forward for the remainder of the fight, despite what he was walking into at times.

Sharp jabs from Roach were meeting McCrory on his way in from round 1 and although McCrory was throwing a high volume of punches, they were neutralised by Roaches tight, slick defence.

A rapid double left hook to body and head staggered McCrory in round 2.  A left and right hook to the head worsened the situation for McCrory, but he managed to grapple Roach and hang on until the bell.

The concerns at the end of round 2 didn’t deter McCroy as, doing what he knows best, he continued to apply pressure on Roach.  A lazy jab from McCrory allowed Roach to step back and throw a left hook over the top that made McCrory touch down with both gloves.  The referee administered an 8 count before McCrory stepped back into the fire.

Roach teed off a left hook, right uppercut, right hook, left hook combination before spinning out and leaving McCrory looking into the crowd, wondering what had just happened.  To his credit, McCrory was not disheartened and returned shots of his own before the end of the round.

There was more distress to come for McCrory in round 4 when two uppercuts to the pit of the stomach from Roach put McCrory on his knees.  He got up at the count of 7, only to be greeted by a ripping left hook to the liver that put him down again.  McCrory rose at the count of 5 before the bell sounded to give him some much needed respite

After such a debilitating round 4, McCrory showed real heart by arguably winning  round 5.  He applied constant pressure, as he had done the whole fight, but landed more punches than he had in the previous 4 rounds.

The revival was short lived however, as it was business as usual for Roach from here on in. An onslaught of uppercuts and hooks had McCrory in trouble in round 7 before the end came in round 8.

Roach patiently picked off McCrory with jabs and landed three straight rights to the body before landing a 1-2 upstairs that staggered McCrory again. Roach seized the opportunity and landed a barrage of punches, forcing McCrory’s corner to throw in the towel with 9 seconds left in the round.

After the fight Roach stated that he wants to unify the belts at 130 lbs.

Emanuel Navarrete, Anthony Cacace and O’Shaquie Foster are the other belt holders at Super Featherweight.

Foster is scheduled to fight Robson Conceicao in July and Cacace’s fight with Josh Warrington on the Anthony Joshua vs Daniel Dubois undercard has just been announced for September.

Navarrete doesn’t currently have any fights lined up, so he could be the next option for Roach.

It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out over the next 12 months.