PARIS -- Christophe Tiozzo of France stopped American Danny Morgan in the second round Friday to retain his WBC super middleweight title at Cergy-Pontoise in the Paris suburbs.
Italian referee Franco Priami stopped the fight midway through the second round as Tiozzo trapped Morgan in a corner and unleashed a two- handed barrage to Morgan's head.
Morgan, who had won his previous 40 fights and was ranked seventh by the WBC, had just taken a standing eight count after Tiozzo put the challenger to the canvas with a crisp left jab.
Tiozzo had Morgan hanging on desperately with his first right to the side of the head in the first minute of the first round. But Tiozzo received a cut in the corner of his left eye after clashing heads with Morgan.
'I wasn't worried,' Tiozzo said after extending his winning streak to 28 fights. 'I knew I had already got the measure of him.'
It was Tiozzo's 20th victory by knockout. Although he would really like a big pay night against someone like Tommy Hearns, Tiozzo must first fight Panama's Victor Cordova, the number one challenger, in March.
Tiozzo, 27, who took the title from South Korean Baek In-chul in March, looked twice as good as he did in his first defense in July, when he went eight rounds against American Paul Whittaker.
In order to prepare for the fight, Tiozzo decided to go into exile in Miami Beach to resist the night life of his hometown.
'But I'm having a party tonight,' said the Parisian, who won a light middleweight bronze medal at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
It was the first fight for the 29-year-old Morgan, originally from Minneapolis but now based in Indianapolis, since knocking out Quinton Fox in Oklahoma City in February after which he needed 36 stitches inside his mouth.
'There wasn't much I could do about it. He caught me with some really good punches,' Morgan said of Tiozzo.
