Wood drops and stops Joyce

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Leigh Wood landed lots of heavy shots against David Oliver Joyce and finally forced a stoppage in round nine

Leigh Wood dropped and stopped David Oliver Joyce in the Golden Contract featherweight quarter-finals.

Wood settled a thrilling scrap at York Road in nine rounds to advance to the semi-finals of the eight-man tournament along with a £5,000 knockout bonus.

Joyce planted himself in the centre of the ring behind his jab in the opener, while Wood was content to circle out of range and pick his shots.

Commonwealth champion Wood whipped in a right hook and dropped his man with a straight left hand in the second but the Irishman recovered to see out the round.

Oliver responded to the knockdown in the third by letting his hands go and marching forward, only to be picked off by counters before having his chin tested by a jolting uppercut.

Joyce continued to fight on the front foot in the fourth, catching Wood with the odd shot but the Nottinghamshire fighter was still landing the cleaner blows.

Wood backed Joyce up onto the ropes in a frantic fifth but the Irishman battled back and the York Hall crowd were on their feet as both fighters traded heavy hooks.

The undefeated Mullingar boxer attempted to boss his taller rival in the sixth with his busy work rate, swinging wildly with both hands before receiving a ticking off from the referee.

Joyce was caught midway through the seventh and somehow managed to survive a barrage of blows while cornered before recovering only to be dropped before the end of the round.

‘The Punisher’ came out for the eighth swinging and caught Wood with a left but it only provoked a series a clubbing hooks to the head from ‘Leigh-thal’.

The pair traded rights in the ninth and after Wood staggered Joyce with a heavy right hook the referee quickly intervened with the Irishman still on his feet on the 2m 23s mark.

Watch Gennadiy Golovkin against Sergiy Derevyanchenko in the early hours of Sunday morning, from 2am on Sky Sports Action.