Michael Conlan: Belfast fighter stops Kenny Guzman in second round

Michael Conlan has stopped all four of his professional opponents

Michael Conlan continued his winning start to his professional career by stopping American Kenny Guzman in the second round in Tucson, Arizona.

The Belfast featherweight has won all of his four contests by knockouts.

After a cagey opening round, Conlan caught Guzman with a right hand to the chin and his opponent hit the canvass.

Guzman got up before the count of 10 but referee Wes Melton stopped the fight after two minutes 59 seconds of the second of six scheduled rounds.

The former world amateur champion is now set to be on the undercard of a WBO super-featherweight world title fight between two-time Olympic champions Vasyl Lomachenko and Guillermo Rigondeaux at Madison Square Garden on 9 December.

"I felt good," Conlan, a bronze medallist at the London 2012 Olympic Games, told Box Nation afterwards.

"At the start I was a bit worried, I felt that he didn't have any power so I did the wrong thing and got reckless and wasn't minding taking punches, which is stupid of me.

"Manny [Robles, coach] shouted at me in the corner but I was just happy to get a nice knock-out. I felt a bit more power tonight, I was working the body a bit more."

For Montana man Guzman, the defeat at the Tucson Convention Centre was the first of his professional career, the 30-year-old having won his three previous bouts.

All of 25-year-old Conlan's three previous fights had resulted in third-round stoppages, his most recent having been against Jarrett Owen in Australia in July.

The Irish boxer defeated Tim Ibarra in New York on his debut on St Patrick's Day and then beat Mexican Alfredo Chanez in May in Chicago.

The bout in Arizona was on the undercard of a bill which had two world title fights.

Gilberto Ramirez saw off Jesse Hart on a unanimous decision to retain his WBO super-middleweight title and Oscar Valdez overcame a fourth-round knockdown by Genesis Servania to retain his WBO featherweight crown, also on a unanimous decision.