After losing his IBF super-lightweight title to Richardson Hitchins in December, Liam Paro returned to action on home soil in Queensland, Australia, today and scored an authoritative fifth-round stoppage over California’s Jonathan Navarro.
Paro, 26-1 (16 KOs), had been lining up an all-Australian clash title defence against George Kambosos Jr. before those plans were spoiled by Hitchins, who dominated the Aussie in an unconventional meeting in Puerto Rico to put an early end to Paro’s reign as champion.
Today, the 29-year-old lefty returned home in the hopes of rebuilding momentum and mounting a second charge towards titles in the 140lb division, appearing in a 144lb catchweight clash against Navarro, 18-2 (9 KOs).
An early head clash left Navarro bloodied before Paro proceeded to dominate with the jab and land the cleaner and effective shots, clearly displaying the difference in levels between himself and the visitor.
In the fifth-round, Paro’s success proved consequential, landing a huge looping left-hand from the southpaw stance flush onto Navarro’s nose, flooring and dazing the underdog.
Navarro returned to his feet only to be battered and bullied by Paro but did well to survive until the end of the round despite the onslaught.
However, the fight was only heading one way and Navarro’s corner proceeded to make the correct call to pull their fighter out between rounds and save him for another day, awarding Paro a fifth-round technical knockout victory and handing Navarro a first defeat inside the distance.
In the post-fight interview, Paro laid down his intentions to continue to represent North Queensland at the peak of the sport, targeting fights against the biggest names in the super-lightweight division and a return to the world level.
A domestic dust-up with Kambosos could prove to be a lucrative proposal and may well be on the cards next, should the former unified lightweight champion decide not to retire following defeat to Hitchins earlier this month.
